Sri Lanka is in a state of unrest with spreading violence and disappearances, and Ravi's life is catastrophically affected.
At first I wondered if (and how) the protagonists of each strand would cross paths and then it didn't seem to matter as I became hooked in the individual stories.
I eventually decided Ravi and Laura might never cross paths, and I began to accumulate the things they held in common - lost parents, a fascination with the wider world, degrees of aloneness. It almost feels like a spoiler to divulge whether or not they do, yet the fact Ravi and Laura end up in the same Australian workplace is a minor chord in a major work.
The narratives are built from the minutiae of life, the comings and goings, the little encounters of routine and surprise. Miniature markers of time and place add nostalgic zing to the narrative: Doc Martens, Fleetwood Mac, listening to the Police on a Walkman, eating Tim Tams, drinking bad coffee, good coffee, surfing the net.
The everyday detail is infused with aphorisms. On Australian children: "When did we decide love was a curdling agent?" On reality/concrete: "something grey that spread and trapped".
As the title suggests, the crucial layer of the book concerns the questions of travel. A key question - "why travel?" - might be a matter of life and death, a need to survive, to defer responsibility or to escape from mundane routine. At what point do you absorb a place so you always carry it with you? When does tourist become traveller? When does the familiar offer the same degree of satisfaction as the lure of the unfamiliar? Can digital travel match the backpack?
De Kretser continues to write substantial novels that reflect upon recent times with a graceful hand.
Paula Green is an Auckland poet and children's author.
