It’s one of the hardest books I’ve ever read in my life, and one of the most intensely affecting, and I think one of the most important for Australia in particular. I read the other four shortlistees, however, and while it was a strong list altogether, Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book is something beyond what any of the others manage. This year, though, both time and reluctance held me back from two of the six titles – one because I really don’t enjoy the author’s work (Tim Winton’s Eyrie), and one because I felt the subject matter might be too hard for me to take (Richard Flanagan’s acclaimed The Narrow Road to the Deep North). I usually try to have a stab at the shortlist, if for no other reason than to measure how far my taste diverges from that of the literary establishment. The book I would have picked, the book that I thought head and shoulders above the rest, wasn’t the winner. While there is no doubt Wyld’s is a very good book, I admit to being slightly disappointed. The winner of Australia’s premier literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award, was announced last week – it went to Evie Wyld’s All the Birds, Singing, selected from a shortlist of six fairly diverse titles. “Even true stories have to be invented sometimes to be remembered…”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |