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"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. "A reversible novel tells the stories of two Asian immigrants to Australia, one 40 years in the past and one in the future... De Kretser, one of our most deeply intelligent writers, offers a book that is wry and heartbreaking, playful and profound." - Kirkus ReviewsLili'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. "Michelle de Kretser’s fiction does more than beckon us in; it requires us to show up. The reward is room to wonder in both senses of the word. But her new novel demands tactile participation ... There’s a whiff of gimmick about it, but also that rarest of high-literary delights: play. It’s magnificent, peerless writing ... " - Beejay Silcox, The Guardian (AU)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. From the twice-winner of the Miles Franklin Award, Scary Monsters is an affecting, profound and darkly funny exploration into racism, misogyny and ageism.SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARDWINNER OF THE 2023 RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE FOR FICTION'A novel of luminous intelligence and profound depth, written with verve, humour and exceptional elegance.'- Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane 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?Praise for Scary Monsters:'A radically brilliant diptych-novel, in complex conversation with itself and with the world we live in, written by one of the living masters of the art of fiction. A beautifully troubling book.'- Max Porter, author of Lanny'Bold, spare and completely original. One of the most exciting contemporary novels I've read for a very long time.'- Preti Taneja, author of We That Are Young'Written with incandescent moral energy, boundless compassion, and astonishing precision and beauty, Michelle de Kretser's Scary Monsters extends the very possibilities of the novel form. On the contemporary international scene, there are very, very few writers who can match her style, her intelligence, her vision. To read her is to be changed.'- Neel Mukherjee, author of The Lives of Others'In Scary Monsters de Kretser addresses the weightiest of subjects with the lightest and deftest of touches, and the result is funny, playful, painful, angry and, above all, ferociously smart. It's a dazzling novel, by a hugely talented author.'- Sarah Waters, author of The Paying Guests'Scary Monsters is a marvel. Each of the two very different parts of the novel had me totally riveted, intensely absorbed, wowed by de Kretser's scathing accuracy--whether she's chronicling youth's delights and distortions or a future where prosperity is the new'unethics'. It's a wildly remarkable book that unfolds like no other.'- Joan Silber, PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of Improvement'I love the way Scary Monsters asks urgent questions about what kind of future we might be sleepwalking towards. And heightens the enquiry by looking back; by unsettling and disturbing our sense of where we are now and where we are headed by dissecting - with exquisite deftness - the barely-concealed misogyny and racism of then, to awaken our senses to now. It's a novel of luminous intelligence and profound depth, written with verve, humour and exceptional elegance.'- Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane From the twice-winner of the Miles Franklin Award, Scary Monsters is an affecting, profound and darkly funny exploration into racism, misogyny and ageism. SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD WINNER OF THE 2023 RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE FOR FICTION 'A novel of luminous intelligence and profound depth, written with verve, humour and exceptional elegance.' - Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane 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? Praise for Scary Monsters : 'A radically brilliant diptych-novel, in complex conversation with itself and with the world we live in, written by one of the living masters of the art of fiction. A beautifully troubling book.' - Max Porter, author of Lanny 'Bold, spare and completely original. One of the most exciting contemporary novels I've read for a very long time.' - Preti Taneja, author of We That Are Young 'Written with incandescent moral energy, boundless compassion, and astonishing precision and beauty, Michelle de Kretser's Scary Monsters extends the very possibilities of the novel form. On the contemporary international scene, there are very, very few writers who can match her style, her intelligence, her vision. To read her is to be changed.' - Neel Mukherjee, author of The Lives of Others 'In Scary Monsters de Kretser addresses the weightiest of subjects with the lightest and deftest of touches, and the result is funny, playful, painful, angry and, above all, ferociously smart. It's a dazzling novel, by a hugely talented author.' - Sarah Waters, author of The Paying Guests ' Scary Monsters is a marvel. Each of the two very different parts of the novel had me totally riveted, intensely absorbed, wowed by de Kretser's scathing accuracy—whether she's chronicling youth's delights and distortions or a future where prosperity is the new "unethics". It's a wildly remarkable book that unfolds like no other.' - Joan Silber, PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of Improvement 'I love the way Scary Monsters asks urgent questions about what kind of future we might be sleepwalking towards. And heightens the enquiry by looking back; by unsettling and disturbing our sense of where we are now and where we are headed by dissecting - with exquisite deftness - the barely-concealed misogyny and racism of then, to awaken our senses to now. It's a novel of... From the twice-winner of the Miles Franklin Award, Scary Monsters is an affecting, profound and darkly funny exploration into racism, misogyny, and ageism. Narrated by two migrants, Scary Monsters is a political novel like no other, one that makes us laugh and despair in equal measure. Each side explores with great depth and empathy the migrant experience in the Western world and the narrowness of a society that fears the other, whether that be migrants themselves, or the scary monsters of racism, ageism and misogyny. Scary Monsters warns of evils that inhabit and are perpetrated by individuals as well as the state. It does so in a format that is strange, running contrary to the usual way a book is presented. Lili is a young woman teaching in a high school in the south of France in the early 1980s. She makes friends, dances to Blondie, tries to imagine what her future will hold and is disturbed by a creepy neighbour. Lyle is a middle-aged man working for the right-wing government in near-future Melbourne. He dresses in filing cabinet colours in order to avoid attracting attention, worries about his unruly children and wayward mother, and fears that a cover-up he's engineered at work will lead to repatriation. Is there a horrifying link between the two narratives? Peopled by mesmerising characters, Scary Monsters is suspenseful, affecting, and witty by turn. It offers a profound meditation on racism, misogyny, and ageism: three monsters that plague the world