![]() We were walking through the Gers, the province once known as Gascony, and even then, at the end of the 20th century, it felt so removed from Paris and urban French life, that we wondered what it must have been like in times past. We’d both read Simon Schama’s Citizens and thought it tremendous. My partner Chris and I had been on a walking holiday in rural France the previous year, during which time Chris had been thinking and talking about 18th-century French literature for a course he was teaching at Melbourne University. I had a year’s sabbatical from my work as an editor, and I began writing as a way of passing the time, really. MICHELLE DE KRETSER: My first novel, The Rose Grower, is set in France during the French Revolution. ROBERT WOOD: How did you come to writing? Not only in your practice, but also your thematic concerns? We caught up to talk about her new novel, The Life to Come, which is on the shortlist of the Stella Prize, and is released in the US today. De Kretser often explores the themes of history, identity, location, relationships and belonging. ![]() Her awards include the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Prime Minister’s Literary Award, a short-listing for the Dublin IMPAC Literary Award, and a long-listing for the Man Booker Prize. She was born in Sri Lanka and moved to Australia before working as an editor with Lonely Planet. Michelle de Kretser’s novels include The Rose Grower, The Lost Dog, and Questions of Travel. ![]() ![]()
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