Winner of the 2013 Miles Franklin AwardWinner of the 2013 ALS Gold MedalLaura travels the world before returning to Sydney, where she works for a publisher of travel guides. Ravi dreams of being a tourist until he is driven from Sri Lanka by devastating events.An enthralling array of people, places and stories surround these superbly drawn characters - from Theo, whose life plays out in the long shadow of the past, to Hana, an Ethiopian woman determined to reinvent herself.Michelle de Kretser illuminates travel, work and modern dreams in this brilliant evocation of the way we live now. Questions of Travel is infused with wit, imagination, uncanny common sense and a deep understanding of what makes us tick.

Set in Sydney, London and Colombo, and taking side-trips all over the world, Questions of Travel examines exactly that: what is it that urges us to see other countries and cultures, and what is it we gain from our fleeting observations of them? The novel's two main characters, young Australian woman Laura and young Sri Lankan man Ravi, are both in search of home - not just where it may be, but what it is. Laura is restless and unfulfilled and spends her youth travelling all over the world before wondering whether home might be right back where she started out from. She returns to Sydney and to the affair she's longed for, but eventually realises home cannot be conjured by other people - it is from within her that she will find that sense of place and belonging. Ravi flees his homeland after a terrorist attack claims his Tamil wife and daughter. He is a refugee in the widest sense of the world - fleeing not only danger in his homeland but the horror in his own heart and the memories that won't let him go. Perhaps Australia is the haven he has been searching for - if he is allowed to stay - but when he is eventually forced to decide, why is his heart telling him to take a different turn altogether? Home, heart, belonging, exile. How do we know when we are home and what does it actually mean?