Sort Of Books to publish Folio Prize winner Michelle de Kretser 

Independent publisher Sort Of Books will publish the new novel by 2023 Folio Prize winner Michelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice. 

The publisher said: “The narrator of Theory & Practice (who, like de Kretser, is Sri Lankan-born) is researching a thesis on Virginia Woolf at Melbourne University. It’s the mid-1980s and the air is charged with ‘beautiful, radical’ theories. Yet the gap between theory and practice proves treacherous; an affair spirals into sexual jealousy and while studying Woolf’s diaries, the narrator stumbles on an entry that repels her.” 

Publisher Natania Jansz acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Australia and New Zealand) from Sarah Lutyens at Lutyens & Rubenstein. Sort Of will publish in February 2025. 

Jansz said: “In this astonishingly deft novel, Michelle de Kretser plays with notions of realism and truth to create fiction that is both thrilling to read and utterly modern. We’ve long admired Michelle’s writing and are honoured and delighted that she has chosen Sort Of for her latest novel.” 

De Kretser added: “Theory & Practice is my most personal novel, and it felt more important than usual to find the perfect home for it. I’m very happy that it’s been acquired by Sort Of Books, and will take its place on their extraordinary list.”