Miles Franklin Award shortlist
Date: April 20, 2007 | Discussion: No Comments
A four-novel shortlist for the 2007 Miles Franklin Award has been announced. Established in 1954 with a bequest from author Miles Franklin, the prize is awarded for the novel that presents Australian life in any of its phases with the highest literary merit.
The winner of the $42,000 (Australian) award will be known on Thursday 21 June 2007.
Careless
by Deborah Robertson
Eight-year-old Pearl tries very hard to get things right. In their cramped apartment, she watches over her small brother and manages her mother’s happiness, while carefully guarding her private passions. But the events of a summer’s day are about to change Pearl’s world, and nothing may ever be right again. In a cooler, greener suburb Sonia is learning to live alone after the death of her husband, and at the edge of the city, close to the beaches, the young artist Adam Logan is hoping that his controversial exhibit will improve his fortunes. In unforeseen ways, Pearl’s tragedy will draw the threads of all their lives together. Combining the intimacy of a family’s heartache with the suspense of a thriller, “Careless” is a gripping, seductive novel about the ties of caring and responsibility that are both formed and broken in today’s society, and about the resilience of the human psyche. …
You can read more about Careless at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Carpentaria
by Alexis Wright
Unfortunately, no description is available for this work.
Dreams of Speaking
by Gail Jones
‘We must talk, Alice Black, about this world of modern things. This buzzing world.’ Alice is entranced by the aesthetics of technology and, in every aeroplane flight, every Xerox machine, every neon sign, sees the poetry of modernity. Mr Sakamoto, a survivor of the atomic bomb, is an expert on Alexander Graham Bell. The pair forge an unlikely friendship as Mr Sakamoto regales Alice with stories of twentieth-century invention. His own knowledge begins to inform her writing, and these two solitary beings become a mutual support for each other a long way from home. This novel from Man Booker longlisted author, Gail Jones is distinguished by its honesty and intelligence. From the boundlessness of space walking to the frustrating constrictions of one person’s daily existence, “Dreams of Speaking paints” with grace and skill the experience of needing to belong despite wanting to be alone. …
You can read more about Dreams of Speaking at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Theft: A Love Story
by Peter Carey
Narrated by the twin voices of the artist Butcher Bones, and his ‘damaged two-hundred-and-twenty-pound brother’ Hugh, “Theft: A Love Story” once again displays Peter Carey’s extraordinary flair for language. Ranging from the rural wilds of Australia to Manhattan via Tokyo, it is a brilliant and moving exploration of art, fraud, responsibility and redemption. …
You can read more about Theft: A Love Story at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
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Filed under Australian literature, Commonwealth literature, English literature, Fiction, Novels, Shortlists.
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