The longlist for the 2010 Miles Franklin award has been announced.
The longlist is:
Figurehead, Patrick Allington (Black Inc. Publishing)
Parrot and Olivier in America, Peter Carey (Penguin Group)
The Bath Fugues, Brian Castro (Giramondo Publishing)
Boy on a Wire, John Doust (Fremantle Press)
The Book of Emmett, Deborah Forster (Random House)
Sons of the Rumour, David Foster (Pan Macmillan)
Siddon Rock, Glenda Guest (Random House)
Butterfly, Sonya Hartnett (Penguin Group)
The People's Train, Tom Keneally (Random House)
Lovesong, Alex Miller (Allen & Unwin)
Jasper Jones, Craig Silvey (Allen & Unwin)
Truth, Peter Temple (Text Publishing)
The shorlisted works will be anounced in April, and the winner on June 22.
A total of 50 novels were submitted for this year's award, and, as usual, there are some notable omissions from this list.
James Bradley appears to be the first cab off the rank with a discussion, and he mentions the omission of The World Beneath by Cate Kennedy, Things We Didn't See Coming by Steven Amsterdam, and The Danger Game by Kalinda Ashton.
The reviews of the Kennedy novel certainly pointed to some level of recognition on this award. The Amsterdam I thought was very good, but if it is set in Australia at all it doesn't make that overly explicit. The judges probably thought it too generic as to locale to fit the award's criteria of "portraying Australian life in any of its phases." A point that James makes regarding the inclusion of Carey's "American" novel; a book with little connection to Australia.
Oh, isn't it good to have an award longlist to slag off about at last!
The longlist is:
Figurehead, Patrick Allington (Black Inc. Publishing)
Parrot and Olivier in America, Peter Carey (Penguin Group)
The Bath Fugues, Brian Castro (Giramondo Publishing)
Boy on a Wire, John Doust (Fremantle Press)
The Book of Emmett, Deborah Forster (Random House)
Sons of the Rumour, David Foster (Pan Macmillan)
Siddon Rock, Glenda Guest (Random House)
Butterfly, Sonya Hartnett (Penguin Group)
The People's Train, Tom Keneally (Random House)
Lovesong, Alex Miller (Allen & Unwin)
Jasper Jones, Craig Silvey (Allen & Unwin)
Truth, Peter Temple (Text Publishing)
The shorlisted works will be anounced in April, and the winner on June 22.
A total of 50 novels were submitted for this year's award, and, as usual, there are some notable omissions from this list.
James Bradley appears to be the first cab off the rank with a discussion, and he mentions the omission of The World Beneath by Cate Kennedy, Things We Didn't See Coming by Steven Amsterdam, and The Danger Game by Kalinda Ashton.
The reviews of the Kennedy novel certainly pointed to some level of recognition on this award. The Amsterdam I thought was very good, but if it is set in Australia at all it doesn't make that overly explicit. The judges probably thought it too generic as to locale to fit the award's criteria of "portraying Australian life in any of its phases." A point that James makes regarding the inclusion of Carey's "American" novel; a book with little connection to Australia.
Oh, isn't it good to have an award longlist to slag off about at last!
Sorry to be pedantic, but Jasper Jones is actually by Craig Silvey, not Craig Silver.
No, be pedantic. I should have picked that up given I read the book last year. Put it down to a typo with my apologies to the author.