Cosmopolitan, richly intelligent, beautiful, questing - Shirley Hazzard's writing reflects her life. The acclaim it attracts is immeasurable.

Brigitta Olubas tells the story of a girl from the suburbs of Sydney, Australia who fell early under the spell of words and sought out books as her companions. In the process she transformed and indeed created her life. She became a woman of the world who felt injustice keenly and a deep and original thinker, who wrote some of the most beautiful novels - Transit of Venus and The Great Fire among them - and always with an eye to the ways we reveal ourselves to another.