Turtle Beach (novel)

Set in 1979 the novel follows an Australian journalist who is covering the arrival in Malaysia of ethnic Chinese fleeing oppression in post-war Vietnam.

Writing in The Canberra Times, Alison Broinowski noted: "The Australian pilgrimage into Asia is what both of Blanche d'Alpuget's novels are about. In Turtle Beach, however, she goes further, into an exploration of the personality of individual Asians as well. Her Indian academic Kanan and her French-Vietnamese Minou are developed in more depth than most of her Australians. The clashes of culture are more effective because she gives both sides."^[2]

After its original publication in 1981 in Australia by publisher Penguin^[3] the novel was later published as follows:

• Simon and Schuster, USA, 1981^[4]
• Penguin, Australia, 1991^[5]

The novel was also translated into French in 1983, and Japanese in 1992.^[1]

• Turtle Beach won The Age Book of the Year Award for Imaginative Writing in 1981^[6]