A novel of dazzling virtuosity and luminous intelligence that explores our urge to leave home, by a writer previously longlisted for both the Man Booker and Orange prizes whose prose can only be described as 'rich, luxuriant, intense, and gorgeous.' (Anita Desai). When Laura inherits money from the aunt who raised her, she sets off to see the world - alone, 'because two makes one a tourist.' When Ravi's family are devastated by a politically motivated atrocity, he seeks asylum in Sydney. The two meet there at a travel-guide publishing firm. She is a staff writer, living with an elderly Italian lover, and he is a website designer who wants only to make a living and forget about his past. Where do these disparate characters truly belong? With her trademark subtlety, Michelle de Kretser shows us that, in the twenty-first century, they belong wherever they're able to be, home or away. She has written a masterful novel for our time replete with dazzling beauty, uncanny common sense, sharp wit, and a deep knowledge of what makes us tick. It is for readers of Zadie Smith's "On Beauty", Jhumpa Lahiri and Sarah Waters.