<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal>As her mother Joan lies dying, Gabrielle Carey writes a letter to Joan’s childhood friend, the reclusive novelist Randolph Stow. This letter sets in motion a literary pilgrimage that reveals long-buried family secrets. Like her mother, Stow had grown up in Western Australia. After early literary success and a Miles Franklin Award in 1958 for his novel <I>To the Islands</I>, he left for England and a life of self-imposed exile. Living most of her life on the east coast, Gabrielle was also estranged from her family’s west Australian roots but never questioned why. A devoted fan of Stow’s writing, she becames fascinated by his connection with her extended family, but before she can meet him he dies. With only a few pieces of correspondence to guide her, Gabrielle embarks on a journey from the red-dirt landscape of Western Australia to the English seaside town of Harwich in a quest to understand her family’s past and Stow’s place in it. <I>Moving Among Strangers</I> is a celebration of one of Australia’s most enigmatic and visionary writers.