The Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction: Winner 2005

Judges report
Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev  Robert Dessaix  (Picador/Pan Macmillan)

This is remarkable, mature work, one that synthesises memoir, history, travel and critical genres, and transcends them all. It is a rare book, written in an international context that effortlessly incorporates an antipodean perspective. Above all, it explores the notion of love and its permutations over two centuries. Dessaix’s fine prose, at turns acid, lyrical and poised, carries a search for Turgenev beyond the personal and into universal yearnings for a life of joy and fulfilment.