Description

WINNER OF THE STELLA PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025

‘The most thrilling fiction of the year … an absolute triumph’ Catherine Taylor, Financial Times

‘A genre-busting inquiry into life and art, youth and Virginia Woolf’ Guardian, Books to Look Forward to 2025

‘I loved Theory & Practice … raw, funny, truthful, youthful’ Tessa Hadley

‘Michelle de Kretser is to my mind one of the finest writers alive and Theory & Practice 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.

Publisher Review

I loved Theory & Practice … raw, funny, truthful, youthful — Tessa Hadley Michelle de Kretser is to my mind one of the finest writers alive and Theory & Practice a lightning strike of a book — Ali Smith Startlingly, uncannily good — V. V. Ganeshananthan Michelle de Kretser is one of the living masters of the art of fiction — Max Porter Theory and Practice blazes with intelligence, passion and wit. — Sarah Waters Michelle de Kretser is a genius – one of the best writers working today. She is startlingly, uncannily good at naming and facing what is most difficult and precious about our lives. Theory & Practice is a wonder — V.V. Ganeshananthan, author of Women’s Prize for Fiction and Carol Shields Prize award-winning Brotherless Night Michelle de Kretser, one of the best writers in the English language, has written her most brilliant book yet. It is, in short, a masterpiece — Neel Mukherjee A gem of a book, suffused with the fervent atmosphere of student life, which asks the reader to look again – at literary history, at the idea of the novel, at ourselves — Francesca Wade, author of Square Haunting Ferociously intelligent …This searching novel offers (de Kretser’s) characteristic blend of moral clarity, bite, and sumptuous style * Kirkus starred review * Praise for Michelle de Kretser and Scary Monsters — : A truly great writer — Ali Smith Magnificent, peerless writing * Guardian * There are very, very few writers who can match her style, her intelligence, her vision. To read her is to be changed — Neel Mukherjee A novel of luminous intelligence and profound depth — Monica Ali A dazzling novel by a hugely talented author — Sarah Waters