A01=Michelle de Kretser
ali smith
australian novels
Author_Michelle de Kretser
booker prize
campus novel
Category=FBA
Category=FC
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eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
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folio prize
glif
im a fan
miles franklin award
olivia laing
prizewinning
prizewinning fiction
sarah waters
scary monsters
sheena patel
sigrid nunez
sri lankan author
the years
to the lighthouse
virginia woolf
womens prize
Product details
- ISBN 9781914502187
- Weight: 191g
- Dimensions: 128 x 196mm
- Publication Date: 26 Feb 2026
- Publisher: Sort of Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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WINNER OF THE STELLA PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025
'The most thrilling fiction of the year ... an absolute triumph' Financial Times
'I loved Theory & Practice ... raw, funny, truthful, youthful' Tessa Hadley
'One of the finest writers alive...a lightning strike of a book' Ali Smith
It's 1986, and 'beautiful, radical ideas' are in the air. A young woman arrives in Melbourne to research the novels of Virginia Woolf. In bohemian St Kilda, she meets artists, activists, students - and Kit. He claims to be in a 'deconstructed' relationship, and they become lovers. Meanwhile, a dismaying discovery throws her work on 'the Woolfmother' into disarray.
Theory & Practice is a mesmerising account of desire and jealousy, truth and shame. It makes and unmakes fiction as we read, expanding our notion of what a novel can contain. Michelle de Kretser, one of Australia's most celebrated writers, bends fiction, essay and memoir into exhilarating new shapes to uncover what happens when life smashes through the boundaries of art.
Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka and emigrated to Australia as a teenager. She was educated in Melbourne and Paris. She is the author of six other novels, most recently Scary Monsters, which won the 2023 Rathbone Folio Prize. She has also won the Miles Franklin Award (twice) and has been longlisted for both the Man Booker and Orange Prize. She lives in Sydney.
