Richard Flanagan has won the Man Booker Prize 2014 with his book The Narrow Road to the Deep North which was described by the chair of the judges, philosopher AC Grayling, as “an absolutely superb novel, a really outstanding work of literature”. “It is not really a war novel,” Grayling said. “It…
Will head or heart triumph when the Man Booker Prize 2014 is announced?
So, which will triumph tomorrow when the Man Booker Prize winner for 2014 is finally announced? Head or heart? My heart wants it to be Richard Flanagan’s harrowing but deeply moving historical drama The Narrow Road to the Deep North largely focused on Australian prisoners of war building the Burma Railway. A close second would be Karen Joy Fowler’s stunningly original and at times very funny We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves which also raises some important and difficult ethical questions.
My head says it will be Howard Jacobson’s bleak, dystopian J or possibly Neel Mukherjee’s The Lives of Others a sweeping masterpiece about the decline of a family, set in the 1967 Bengali famine. But like everyone except the judging panel, I
Shortlist for Miles Franklin Literary Award announced
Those with are supposedly in the know are spruiking either Alexis Wright (The Swan Book) or Tim Winton (Eyrie) to walk away with Australia’s top fiction prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Both are previous winners. However, I’m going to go out on a limb and say it will be Richard Flanagan’s moving…
Shortlists announced for 2014 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards
Some of Australia’s leading writers have been recognised in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards announced today. The six contenders in the Fiction category are: The Secret Lives of Men by Georgia Blain, The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanangan, The Railwayman’s Wife by Ashley Hay, Questions of Travel…
Longlist for Miles Franklin Award announced
Congratulations to friend and colleague Nicolas Rothwell whose novel Belomor has been long listed for the $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia’s most prestigious literary prize. The list, announced this week, includes some of the country’s most respected authors such as Tim Winton, up for a record fifth Miles Franklin for Eyrie, Alexis Wright, who won in…
My Top Ten books for 2013: A wonderful year of reading
For the first time I kept a list of the books I read during past year and looking back over the months, 2013 was a rich year for literary pleasure. In total I read 76 books. That averaged out at about six books a month I only managed three in June yet nine in May (that’s the luxury of holidays). Apart from reading all the books on the Booker Prize shortlist there was no particular rhyme or reason to my selections. Sometimes I would just see a book in a book shop, other times it was the book selected by my book club. Sometimes it was a review or a news item in a newspaper or magazine or because an author was appearing at a literary festival I was attending (Dublin, Hay-on-Wye in England and Byron Bay in Australia).
Despite all that, I when I read other people’s end-of-year Best Of book lists I was stunned at the number I had not even heard of let alone all those wonderful authors whose books are sitting on my bedside table or in my e-reader but which I haven’t got around to reading yet. I did live up to the promise I made myself to read more collections of short stories and was richly rewarded. I read a pathetically small number of non-fiction which I hope to remedy in 2014. There were one or two which, if it were not for the “I’ve started so I’ll finish” rule, would have immediately been relegated to the bottom of the book pile but thus is the delicious serendipity of reading.
So, before the clock ticks over to a new day and new year, here is my top ten for 2013
Page-turners: recent happenings in the world of books
Donal Ryan has taken out the Guardian First Book Award 2013 with The Spinning Heart, a picture of rural life in post-crash Ireland. I haven’t read The Spinning Heart (which was long-listed for The Booker Prize) but I have read (and have reviewed here on Stillnotfussed) two of the other…