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'From the twice-winner of the Miles Franklin Award, Scary Monsters is an affecting, profound and darkly funny exploration into racism, misogyny and ageism.
''When my family emigrated it felt as if we'd been stood on our heads.'
'Michelle de Kretser's electrifying take on scary monsters turns the novel upside down - just as migration has upended her characters' lives.
'Lili's family migrated to Australia from Asia when she was a teenager. Now, in the 1980s, she's teaching in the south of France. She makes friends, observes the treatment handed out to North African immigrants and is creeped out by her downstairs neighbour. All the while, Lili is striving to be A Bold, Intelligent Woman like Simone de Beauvoir.
'Lyle works for a sinister government department in near-future Australia. An Asian migrant, he fears repatriation and embraces 'Australian values'. He's also preoccupied by his ambitious wife, his wayward children and his strong-minded elderly mother. Islam has been banned in the country, the air is smoky from a Permanent Fire Zone, and one pandemic has already run its course.
'Three scary monsters - racism, misogyny and ageism - roam through this mesmerising novel. Its reversible format enacts the disorientation that migrants experience when changing countries changes the story of their lives. With this suspenseful, funny and profound book, Michelle de Kretser has made something thrilling and new.
''Which comes first, the future or the past?'' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Books Roundup : Permafrost, Scary Monsters, Another Day in the Colony, How to End a Story
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , November 2021;
— Review of Permafrost 2021 selected work short story ; Scary Monsters 2021 single work novel ; Another Day in the Colony 2021 selected work essay ; How to End a Story : Diaries 1995–1998 2021 single work diary -
The Flip Side Is Alarming
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 16 October 2021; (p. 15)
— Review of Scary Monsters 2021 single work novel -
Lili and Lyle : Michelle de Kretser's New Novel
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 436 2021; (p. 36-37)
— Review of Scary Monsters 2021 single work novel -
Michelle de Kretser Turns the Novel Upside down : ‘My Aim Was to Play with Form’
Michael Williams
(interviewer),
2021
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 15 October 2021;'The two-time Miles Franklin-winner’s new book, Scary Monsters, is in fact two books, with two front covers – and no clues as to where to start'
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With Two Stories and Two Front Covers, the Reader Chooses Where to Start : In France in the Past, or in a Dystopian Australian Future
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 19 October 2021;
— Review of Scary Monsters 2021 single work novel'With two stories and two front covers, the reader chooses where to start: in France in the past, or in a dystopian Australian future'
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[Review] Scary Monsters
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Monthly , October no. 182 2021; (p. 64)
— Review of Scary Monsters 2021 single work novel -
Scary Monsters, Michelle de Kretser
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 16-22 October 2021;
— Review of Scary Monsters 2021 single work novel'The first thing to know about Scary Monsters is that it consists of two novellas bound top to tail within a single paperback. It’s a design decision that reinforces the world-turned-upside-down nature of the stories contained: one a narrative set in France – what that story’s narrator drolly labels le centre historique – and the other taking place in the ahistorical non-place of suburban Australia.' (Introduction)
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Michelle de Kretser : Scary Monsters
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , October 2021;
— Review of Scary Monsters 2021 single work novel'Miles Franklin-winner Michelle de Kretser offers unsettling possibilities and questions to ponder in her latest fiction.'
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With Two Stories and Two Front Covers, the Reader Chooses Where to Start : In France in the Past, or in a Dystopian Australian Future
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 19 October 2021;
— Review of Scary Monsters 2021 single work novel'With two stories and two front covers, the reader chooses where to start: in France in the past, or in a dystopian Australian future'
-
Lili and Lyle : Michelle de Kretser's New Novel
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 436 2021; (p. 36-37)
— Review of Scary Monsters 2021 single work novel -
Michelle de Kretser Turns the Novel Upside down : ‘My Aim Was to Play with Form’
Michael Williams
(interviewer),
2021
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 15 October 2021;'The two-time Miles Franklin-winner’s new book, Scary Monsters, is in fact two books, with two front covers – and no clues as to where to start'
Awards
- 2022 longlisted Indie Awards — Fiction