The shortlisted works for the 2009 Miles Franklin Award are announced tomorrow. You may recall that at the time the longlist of ten novels was announced in March I mentioned that I had a little side bet running with Kerryn Goldsworthy of the "Still Life with Cat" weblog regarding who could get closest to the mark at each of the award's three levels: longlist, shortlist and winner. I got beaten 6-4 at the longlist stage and hope to do better this time round. Well, I have to really. Otherwise I'm out in straight sets. Be aware, though, that Kerryn, as an ex-Miles Frank Award judge, has what might be termed a "home-ground" advantage here.
In case you've forgotten, here are the longlisted novels:
Addition Toni Jordan, Text Publishing
A Fraction of the Whole Steve Toltz, Hamish Hamilton (Penguin Books)
Breath Tim Winton, Hamish Hamilton (Penguin Books)
fugative blue Claire Thomas, Allen & Unwin
Ice Louis Nowra, Allen & Unwin
one foot wrong Sofie Laguna, Allen & Unwin
The Devil's Eye Ian Townsend, Fourth Estate (HarperCollinsPublishers Australia
The Pages Murray Bail, Text Publishing
The Slap Christos Tsiolkas, Allen & Unwin
Wanting Richard Flanagan, Knopf (Random House Australia)
And here's my choice of the six to appear on the shortlist:
A Fraction of the Whole Steve Toltz, Hamish Hamilton (Penguin Books)
Breath Tim Winton, Hamish Hamilton (Penguin Books)
fugative blue Claire Thomas, Allen & Unwin
The Pages Murray Bail, Text Publishing
The Slap Christos Tsiolkas, Allen & Unwin
Wanting Richard Flanagan, Knopf (Random House Australia)
I can't say I'm overly confident with this lot. No fault of the books but the lack of women authors on my list is very worrying. Oh, for a Garner or a London now.
