Emily Bitto / ‘England is not the cultural centre for Australians any more’

Australian author Emily Bitto, whose second novel, Wild Abandon,
is out now through Allen & Unwin. 
Photograph: Nicholas Purcell 

Author Emily Bitto: ‘England is not the cultural centre for Australians any more’

Stella Prize winner’s new novel with its Tiger King-style setting in rural Ohio is an exploration of hedonism in the face of capitalist decline

The 25 best Australian books of 2021

Brigid Delaney

Wed 29 Sep 2021 02.00 BST

T

he hero’s journey is a narrative device as old as storytelling itself. But what does it look like now, when we are running out of days and new places on the map? For a millennial Melbourne man, Will, the protagonist of Emily Bitto’s second novel, Wild Abandon, the hero’s journey is America.

Michelle de Kretser

'We are not very caring’: Michelle de Kretser on Australian society

In her new novel The Life to Come, the Miles Franklin-winning author critiques Australia’s character, and the boom that made us bad

Brigid Delaney
Fri 10 Nov 2017 21.30 GMT

 

Children of Australia’s long boom – who travel the world only to complain about lack of good coffee, who signal virtue by retweeting an asylum seeker story, who couldn’t imagine living in a house with only one bathroom, who are “really into food” – may find Michelle de Kretser’s new book an uncomfortable read.

The Life to Come is a novel in five sections that focuses, in part, on the lives of Australia’s upper middle-class progressives. We meet Celeste, an Australian now living in Paris; Ash, a Sri Lankan academic in Sydney; and Pippa, a moderately successful novelist.