I'm starting this thread to promote my own country's literature. Once a month I'll post the best-reviewed recent releases.

Ron McCoy's Sea of Diamonds by Gregory Day
The River Baptists by Belinda Castles
Feather Man by Rhyll McMaster
A Little Rain on Thursday by Matt Rubinstein

ALSO
The Broken Shore by Peter Temple recently won the 2007 Golden Dagger

Thanks for doing this. Over the years I have read some Australian lit, but it's not an area that I know much about. I'm surprised that Australian books don't seem to get much press here in Canada. Keep 'em coming! (Oh, and can you include some children's and young adult titles too?)

I'm glad to see this thread, too. I have just purchased The Secret River by Kate Grenville, which I hear is good. Have you read that one?

A great YA author of fabulist short fiction is Margo Lanagan - her stories always make one think. Collections include: Black Juice, White Time, and Red Spikes. Interestingly, although they are fantasy or speculative, they have a distinctly Australian 'feel' to them.

Kate Grenville has just published a memoir about writing The Secret River, Searching for the Secret River.
A recent interview where she discusses why she wrote this can be found here Kate Grenville.

The biggest problem with Australian literature is getting hold of it, despite sharing a common language a lot of authors don't seem to be published in the UK, or in very small editions.

There's more information about this topic on What Are You Reading Now under "A Year of Australian Literature."

I thought The Secret River was very good.

The big novel of the year is Carpentaria by Alexis Wright which won our most prestigious literary prize.

Amandameale, perhaps you could enlighten us to any distinct regions or other 'subdivisions" in Australian lit? Obviously, Aboriginal lit is one.

Can one discuss 'bush literature' as a subset of Australian lit? (I'm being wildly speculative here).

Or putting it another way, if we were trying to get a nice overall picture of Australia through fiction, what would we need to include?

(sorry to make you work harder, are you our only Aussie here?)

aarti, #3, I read The Secret River because of LT recommendations, and it is one of my favorite books of the year.

jargoneer, #5 Thanks for the link.

Well then, maybe I'll stick with Australia as a theme and after finishing The Fatal Shore, I'll start The Secret River :-) A good segue, really, as they're both about colonization! But I have to wait for Secret River to *arrive* first.

#7 As far as I recall. there is a pretty good list on "A Year of Australian Literature" mentioned above. You would probably have to read all of them to cover the different facets of Australia. Did I once post a list grouping different types of novels??

COMING IN NOVEMBER 2007: a new novel The Memory Room by Christopher Koch. Koch is a truly fine writer and I can't wait. His previous novels include The Year of Living Dangerously, Highways to a War and Out of Ireland.

Well, it's about a year old but today I bought Hoi Polloi memoir by Craig Sherborne. This memoir has had lots of good reviews so I'm looking forward to it.

Last week I bought Love Without Hope by Rodney Hall which had good reviews earlier this year.
Long Afternoon of the World by Graeme Kincross-Smith is new this month. " (This novel) is a passionate story told with great feeling. Moreover, it is a literary tour de force; more than three hundred and fifty pages of introspection in language of the highest poetic order." AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW
Also The Children by Charlotte Wood. "Wood makes the most ordinary moments glow; her sensitivity to visual detail cuts to the quick. Little escapes her, and the result is a graceful and empathetic portrayal of one family seeking to understand itself." AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW

I am about to start The Island of Four Rivers by Christopher Morgan, a Melbourne based author. It was highly recommended in The Age some weeks ago. I'll let you know what I think about it later on.

#13 I can remember quite enjoying Rodney Hall's Second Bridegroom about ten years ago, so I'd be interested to hear what his latest is like.

I really, really liked Love Without Hope. Rodney Hall is a great author. I can also recommend The Yandilli Trilogy set in the early years of Australia.

Well, I only discovered yesterday that a series which has been very popular over here was written by an Australian.* The books are set in Japan, written in a simple style, and have received good reviews. Details:
Author: LIAN HEARN
Books in the series: Across the Nightingale Floor, Grass For his Pillow, The Harsh Cry of the Heron, and Heaven's Net is Wide (new release, no touchstone yet.)
*Lian Hearn is a pseudonym for Gillian Rubinstein.

This is a question for anyone from Sydney, or who knows the area well. I'm currently reading The Secret River, and much of it is set in the bush along the Hawkesbury River. It seems very remote from civilization. I'm wondering what that area is like today. From what I can see on Google Earth, it looks like the upper parts of the river (Windsor-Richmond) are an extension of Sydney. The part of the river closer to the ocean looks like it may be a nature reserve or park. Is this accurate?

I spent some months in Sydney twenty years ago, but I never got north of Manly. How far is Windsor-Richmond from downtown? What kind of area is it now? Is there train service to that area?
Thanks!

I cross the Hawkesbury when I am driving north of Sydney. It's about 30 minutes outside Sydney. The section I see has thick bush surrounding the river banks, much as it would have looked originally. Oyster leases, or something similar can be seen there as well. Since I read The Secret River I look at the Hawkesbury differently. That's my little snapshot - others could tell you more.

Richmond and Windsor are also outside Sydney, to the north-west - about two hours drive from the centre of the city. As far as I know these places are highly populated and would definitely be accessible by train.

Message edited by its author, Oct 31, 2007, 8:08am.

#19: Thanks Amandameale! Great info. I haven't read a book set in Australia for years, and this one is making me want to come back for a visit (though the Australia I saw in 1982-83 was very different from the Australia in the Secret River, of course!).

WEll it's a big month for Australian literature. Three new books by major writers!

1. The Memory Room by Christopher Koch I mentioned before that Koch is an exemplary writer. "Spies, lies, love betrayal and nostalgia - a heady mix handled with consummate ease by one of Australia's best writers. A marvellous novel." Good Reading Magazine

2. The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser THis author has two decent novels under her belt. "...an achingly personal perspective on history. And it is a joy to read such gloriously paced, beautifully written prose." Good Reading Magazine

3. Landscape by Alex Miller THis is the second of Miller's aboriginal/white reconciliation books. The first was Journey to the Stone Country and it was excellent. "Miller has crafted a beautifully reflective narrative, navigating explorations not just of the land but of story and history, of truth-telling and massacre, and the power and futility of saying sorry." Good Reading Magazine

YOUNG ADULT LIT
What I was by Meg Rosoff
"...an impressive piece of work that shines from beginning to end."

The Declaration by Gemma Malley
Futuristic setting. "THis book's translation rights have been sold, before publication, in ten languages. A chilling, one-sit, riveting read."

Town by James Roy
",,,another exceptional piece of work..."
"In this collection of thirteen stories strung together by a common thread, we view the lives of thirteen young people in a town - any town, somewhere in Australia."

Touchstones: I can understand why there are none for the new titles, but some of these authors have sold more than one book overseas.

I didn't realise that Meg Rosoff's Australian - she's really good (and don't just believe this old fart... a number of teenagers of my acquaintance thought How I Live Now was wicked).

Any other info on The Lost Dog? Didn't de Kretser write The Hamilton Case (which was very good, btw)?

There is a good interview with de Kretser on ABC's Book Show today.

#23 avaland: "Tom Loxley, born in India to an English father and Eurasian mother and now living in Australia, loses his dog in the bush. Over the next nine days he will search desperately to find his friend and talisman, never named. As he does so, he relives his past and contemplates the uncertainty of his future. ... part love story, part mystery, part celebration of relationships..." Good Reading Magazine

man-dog love story? Maybe not my cup o' tea. Thanks though, Amanda. And jargoneer. I used to have the ABC show download automatically on my desktop itunes but I wasn't keeping up...

#6 Essay about Carpentaria in today's New York Times.

#27 Thanks citizenkelly.

Not much to report this month, and no time for detail.

The Children by Charlotte Wood
The Trout Opera by Matthew Condon
The Complete Stories by David Malouf (short stories)
The Fern Tattoo by David Brooks

*I have already bought The Fern Tattoo and will probably buy the others as well. They all sound good.

The big one this month (which is already available overseas?) is People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. I've read a couple of so-so reviews and I won't be buying it. I'm sure Brooks will have no trouble with sales though, after winning last year's (?)Pulitzer Prize. (My memory is getting worse.)

For me, the most interesting new novel is Addition by Toni Jordan which has had very good reviews. Grace is an obsessive-complusive who counts everything, constrantly. And then she meets Seamus...

I'll probably also buy Nine Parts Water by Emma Hardman. "Returning to Tungalla twenty years after her mother's suicide, Cal is a faded surfing champion who just wants to make surfboards and ignore the lump in her breast. A groundswell of complications, however, is threatening to break." Good Reading Magazine

Two others reviewed as entertaining reads are:
Caravan Story by Wayne Macauley
and
Trick or Treat by Kerry Greenwood.

Message edited by its author, Feb 17, 2008, 7:25am.

Can't forget the other new Australian release this month, Peter Carey's new novel His Illegal Self (which doesn't appear to have a touchstone yet).

It looks interesting. I had a quick flip through while I was processing it the other day. It's still in hardback though so I'm waiting for the paperback (or for the library to get it).

It's about the son of radical student activists who is raised by his grandmother in what sounds like a rather austere environment. It follows his travels to Queensland and learning about his family and himself.

My favourite Australian author would have to be Scott Westerfeld. Other than that I don't read much by Australians. I live here and from the looks of my 90 or so books, I don't own one by an Australian author. All of my favourite authors are American, sadly.

trinah, I wasn't aware Westerfeld was Australian, but if you like his work, you might consider trying Garth Nix, Margo Lanagan, Isobelle Carmody, Sean McMullen, or Sara Douglass. Of course, this is why we are all in this group, to explore the literatures of other countries!

thanks, amandameale, for keeping us updated.

It occurred to me recently, while reading Australian Classics, how many Aussie authors write incredible 'Australian' novels while living outside of Australia, sometimes for decades. Peter Carey, for one. Robert Hughes, another. Even Tim Winton wrote Cloudstreet when he was living abroad. And isn't that a bit of the theme in the Peter Allen anthem?

Australia has had a long history of ex-pats writing about Australia. And of Australians moving overseas to advance their career. This was particularly noticeable during the 50s and 60s when cultured types thought that Australia was a cultural backwater (the famous "cultural cringe" we still experience) and that the only way to become truly educated, witty and urbane was to move to England.

Things have changed a bit now but not much. Anyone writing critically about Australia from overseas (read: Germaine Greer) is usually shouted down and told to hand in their Australian citizenship post haste, (personally I think Germaine does it because she likes to feel important) but authors who write from overseas are almost the accepted norm these days. I think there is a great deal of feeling that the Australian publishing market is limited and that you need to head for a bigger country (esp. America or the UK) in order to put yourself out there and be recognised by a wider audience. To some extent this is true, because there are limited resources and publishers available for local fiction content, and it's always been the case in Australia that you're not really important or respected until someone overseas has taken notice of you.

On that note of "overseas", could you (Amandameale) or anyone else in the know, please suggest an internet site that we could look for these Aussie titles to buy.

Basically all my known internet sources (Abebooks, Indigo books, Amazon) do not stock most of your suggestions so they are unavailable to buy. HELP........ Frustrating to not be able to get my paws on a book.

You can buy books online from www.dymocks.com.au which is an Australian bookshop. I don't know what their shipping costs are like for overseas but they'll have all the titles that amandameale listed (well, most of them). Most chain bookshops in Australia (Angus & Robertson, QBD etc) will probably have a similar website ordering service. You could also try emailing smaller independents who will also be able to ship the books out to you. Once again, not sure what the costs will be but they should be able to tell you. I'm not sure if all bookshops offer international shipping, but I know mine does!

Karen, I'm posting these books when they are brand new and sometimes not even available in our shops. So, apart from dream's advice (above) you might just have to wait a few months (or more).

Thank you for that 'overview' dreamlikecheese. I recently saw an article about Peter Carey and his love of Australia and NYC (he has been in city for decades?) and how they both inform his writing. Of course, I can't find the article now. I hadn't realized he had been in NYC as long as he had been.

Perhaps, I understand the need to be more in the hub of a larger literary community for a time and, as you say, the need for more exposure on a worldwide stage. The population of Australia is what...30 million, I read recently? (travel book). Relatively speaking, the population of New York state (which includes the city) is around 20 million, of California is 36 million, of the United Kingdom 60 million. I don't mean to suggest that population is an indicator of anything except possibly a limiting factor to publishers.

I think the internet has been changing this in many ways for authors and for readers. I think LibraryThing has been a great vehicle, for example, to introduce readers to wonderful Australian writers --- in particular, to readers who may not have been exposed to many Australian writers before.

Isn't it also the case that some authors feel more comfortable writing about a place from a distance? Often it makes them more comfortable because they are able to view it with a clearer perspective. I remember an interview with Ian Rankin when he revealed he originally wrote his Rebus novels in France because then he didn't feel so trapped by living in, and writing about, Edinburgh.

I think you are right jargoneer, and certainly this isn't limited to Australian authors. I noticed Geraldine Brooks 'divides her time' between Martha's Vineyard and Sydney. She hasn't written anything particularly Australian, has she? What about the new book?

The population of Australia actually only hit 21 million a few months ago. Not to mention that we are all spread out across a country almost the same size as the US so most of our large cities are quite small by global standards (our capital has only 300 000 people and our largest city, Sydney, has 5 million people). Added to this, each large city is fairly isolated from the others (it's an 11-12 hour drive from Melbourne to Sydney for example....and I can't even comprehend how far Perth is from anywhere else!) so in terms of resources and literary communities, every thing's a lot smaller and there's not a lot to go around.

>35 karenwardill

One of the best sites in Australia, IMO, is www.Abbeys.com.au as they have a great monthly newsletter for both crime: Crime Chronicle, and 'the rest' Abbey's Advocate, (which you can subscribe to BTW and find on the home page) and I think they have a link on their site for Australian authors.

For fantasy and science fiction: www.Galaxy.com.au is an affiliated shop with Abbeys and I KNOW on their site they have a section for Australian authors. They also have a great monthly newsletter, in which they note by each book released for that month if the author is from Oz.

Then I suggest you see if you can find the titles locally to buy as shipping in this country is exorbitant and over-priced!

L.

And the price of books is also exorbitant!

Actually, Lman, the SF & Fantasy genre has been way ahead of the curve with regards to seeking out and giving exposure to Aussie authors. It is possible that some of these authors were published outside of Australia before they were inside.

Abbeys as in the big independent bookstore in Sydney?

Abbeys - yes.

You should also try the big Melbourne independent, Readings. You can find their website here

Message edited by its author, Feb 20, 2008, 8:35am.

I've stumbled across a book and was wondering if any of you clever Australians has heard of it / read it / can recommend it:
As Good a Yarn with You
The Amazon description sounds tantalising:

"This is a fascinating collection of the correspondence between six Australian women writers written between 1930 and 1957 (...) Miles Franklin, Katharine Susannah Prichard, Jean Devanny, Marjorie Barnard, Flora Eldershaw and Eleanor Dark discuss their work, their personal lives and their views of the world in these letters, which were written with the purpose of providing sympathetic support and which bacome a source of friendship. Each of the women was centrally engaged with the social and political issues of her time, and these letters appear as a continuing dialogue written over three decades, from the Depression with its struggles and militancy, the nationalism and chauvinism of the Second World War, through to the conservatism of the Cold War. As non-fictional writing, the correspondence perhaps best articulates the complexity of the women's lives and the clashes between their private and the public worlds in a way which more polished literary genres fail to do".

Incidentally, and quite unconnected, I seem to have entered a sort of Australian twilight zone in my head, probably because I've just finished My Place (I think it was the word chooks that did it. Or ute)... all of a sudden, all kinds of Australian television series from my childhood have flooded my memory. A Country Practice! The Flying Doctors! the god-awful Sons and Daughters! Above all, The Sullivans!!!!
I had utterly forgotten all about them, and now I can't get them out of my noggin. Weird. And slightly discomfiting.

Message edited by its author, Feb 21, 2008, 3:41am.

You got all those shows?

On behalf of the Australian people I apologise fully and completely for subjecting you to such treatment.

They were great shows!

Message edited by its author, Feb 21, 2008, 6:15am.

citzenkelly: 1) Never heard of the letters book but it sounds very interesting.
2) I think you are mutating into an Australian. Congratulations.

>48 - the UK & Ireland get lots of Australian television. Neighbours is probably responsible for more UK immigration to Australia than anything else. What it taught us was that if you turned up penniless, were moderately good-looking, and had the potential to be a good mate, an Australian family would take you in and look after you.

I recently discovered that an old Aussie family sitcom, Hey Dad!, was broadcast in Germany. And that McLeod's Daughters is really popular in Israel. All I can say is....why?

Is this one out yet in Oz? It sounds like good read:
House at Riverton by Kate Morton (due out here in April). If you worry about reading spoilers in a review, one can reliably read the first few lines and the last line or two in a PW review and discover WHY they like the book.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This debut page-turner from Australian Morton recounts the crumbling of a prominent British family as seen through the eyes of one of its servants. At 14, Grace Reeves leaves home to work for her mother's former employers at Riverton House. She is the same age as Hannah, the headstrong middle child who visits her uncle, Lord Ashbury, at Riverton House with her siblings Emmeline and David. Fascinated, Grace observes their comings and goings and, as an invisible maid, is privy to the secrets she will spend a lifetime pretending to forget. But when a filmmaker working on a movie about the family contacts a 98-year-old Grace to fact-check particulars, the memories come swirling back. The plot largely revolves around sisters Hannah and Emmeline, who were present when a family friend, the young poet R.S. Hunter, allegedly committed suicide at Riverton. Grace hints throughout the narrative that no one knows the real story, and as she chronicles Hannah's schemes to have her own life and the curdling of younger Emmeline's jealousy, the truth about the poet's death is revealed. Morton triumphs with a riveting plot, a touching but tense love story and a haunting ending.

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton was published in Australia as The Shifting Fog back in 2006. She has a new one coming out here in June called The Forgotten Garden.

Thanks. The Shifting Fog, huh? Interesting title switch.

Thanks for clearing that up. I thought that Riverton was the sequel to Fog.

Unlike many, I have book search tools at my finger tips. I memorised the bookshop passwords to the book search engines we use at work!

#57 Dear Cheese
Do you work in a bookshop in Australia?
If so I would like to be your friend.
Amanda

I have many good qualities.

>58/9 - easily the most emotionally moving writing I have read this year. Deserves at least a Booker nomination, and a friend who works in a bookshop.

>57 yeah, she friended me when I still worked in a bookshop (and I can vouch for her good qualities...)

>60 yes, the clever prose along with strategic use of white space is also worthy of note. It is somewhat self-referential, perhaps a touch of post-modernism?

>60: I enjoyed the playful re-interpretation of traditional linear narrative demonstrated in #58 .

haiku-esque.

Edited to fix nonsensical numerical inaccuracies

Message edited by its author, Feb 22, 2008, 11:07am.

I think we need to look at the words between the words. We have an entire psyche, a persona and a relationship in beautiful, lyrical, spare prose. It forces the reader to identify and confront the existential crises that face us all daily. Surely not only Booker Prize worthy stuff, but Pulitzer and Nobel as well. And I hear Hollywood has optioned it to make into the summer blockbuster of 2009.

Meanwhile, you people are only confirming my theory that there is something about my name that inspires insane behaviour in others. I love it!

I must say I much preferred avaland when she worked ina bookshop. I've gone off her a bit since then. Not that I'm shallow, by any means.

yeah, yeah, I noticed you've dropped down on my 'users with my books" list, amandameale. I still have acquaintances in literary places... (I bought them all homemade cookies at Book Expo America one year, they will NEVER forget me).

>63 a Nobel, you think? Her posting career has been relatively short (er...since 2006)...although I expect she has posted considerably more than, say, Philip Roth.

Those who enjoy adventurous writing may want to look for the Fall 2007 issue of the Review of Contemporary Fiction. It is devoted to "New Australian Fiction," and features work by: Carmel Bird, Greg Bogaerts, Christopher Cyrill, Delia Falconer, Tom Flood, A.L. McCann, Gerald Murnane, Ouyang Yu, Tim Richards, Thomas Shapcott, Christos Tsiolkas, Brenda Walker, Michael Wilding, and Nicholas Jose. There's also an introduction which is extraordinarily useful for those of us not current about Antipodean fiction.

Message edited by its author, Mar 2, 2008, 8:09am.

Strictly speaking, the books cited in Salon's "Literary Guide to the World: Australia"http://www.salon.com/books/literary_guide/2006/09/18/australia/index.html
don't count as "current" Australian literature (the article was posted last year), but they would certainly be generally available. This is an excellent overview offering something for almost everyone. Bill Bryson isn't an Australian writer, but to hear him talk about the country, you can tell he'd like to be!

I live in Melbourne, a very literary city, and enjoy reading our local authors. Among my favourites are Alex Miller and Shane Maloney.

Regional Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2008 is The Time That We Have Taken by Steven Carroll.

I'm new to this thread, but it looks like Secret River is a must read. Thanks.

Sadly, I can't recommend anything this month. All of the reviews I've read have been ambivalent and I only want to pass on books with good reviews.

I do have one YA recommendation: Waves by Sharon Dogar. "Charley is trapped in her body, neither dead nor alive, after a swimming accident the previous year." "This story is spun with poetic prose and strong writing...". Good Reading Magazine

I don't know whether these books were received well by critics, but the feedback I've been getting from customers has highlighted 2 Australian novels for me this month.

For a bit of light entertainment, Marion Halligan's sequel Murder on the Apricot Coast has been raved about by our customers. Mainly 40+ year old women in this case. Her first book in this series, The Apricot Colonel was a light-hearted, at times hilarious, crime novel. Think Kerry Greenwood with jam instead of bread. The second book seems to be much the same (why mess with a winning formula after all!)

The other book, perhaps not so light-hearted is The God of Speed by Luke Davies, best known as the author of Candy on which the Heath Ledger film of the same name was based. I haven't read this one yet but the initial reactions from customers seems to be positive. It's a snapshot into the life of the renowned aviator Howard Hughes (last seen in the movie, The Aviator).

Argh. I just came in to work and saw all these Australian books reproaching me for not mentioning them in my previous post, so I just need to add two more.

American Journeys by Don Watson was released last month in hardback. Watson was former PM Paul Keating's speech writer and he has a wonderful style. According to the reviewer in the Australian Book Review, "There are passages in this book so good they demand to be read aloud, aphorisms worth turning over and examining closely, the distillation of a life thinking about the glamorous America first seen in childhood, later complicated by a thousand contrary images, but still tugging at the imagination. Don Watson has written a profound and deeply personal work that makes for itself a place in the great tradition of American Journeys."

The other book I can recommend is The Spare Room by Helen Garner. I haven't seen a review of this yet (though apparently both The Age and The Monthly have reviewed it), but I read an extract from it in a magazine a couple of weeks ago. It's her first novel in about 15 years. As you would expect from such a respected novelist and journalist, the prose is brilliantly evocative but concise. It's a story of cancer, friendship, honesty, compassion and many other things.

That's it for now, but I'm sure I'll be back tomorrow with some other wonderful book I've overlooked!

dreamlikecheese, I second your above recommendation. The Spare Room is a very moving story about cancer, death and friendship where the feelings of the carer are explored. Garner tells a very honest story which is in no way maudlin or depressing; it is uplifting in the way she depicts the relationships and the emotions in such an honest way.

The BIG ONE this month is Breath by Tim Winton. The reviews are very good and I would be reading it regardless.

One excellent review for The Comfort of Figs by Simon Cleary. The novel centres around the Story Bridge in Brisbane.
"Cleary creates two time frames, one tracing the building of the bridge, it's workers and their lives, the other a contemporary narrative in which a young City Council worker deals with family problems." Good Reading Magazine.

Good reviews for Disquiet, a novella by Julia Leigh. A prodigal daughter returns home to the family castle (castle?). Both Gothic and Romantic influences in the writing.

Message edited by its author, May 8, 2008, 9:24am.

I've been remiss with my reportage in the past few months. Here are a few which might be of interest:

The Pages by Murray Bail - Bail also wrote Eucalyptus
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton - is this a sequel to The Shifting Fog aka The House at Riverton?
The Good Parents by Joan London

And for fans of showbiz and Australiana:
Blood and Tinsel: A Memoir by Jim Sharman (director extraordinaire and son of Jimmy Sharman, boxer.) I've had a flick through this one and it reads very well. Mentions several of his conversations with Patrick White.

The BIG ONE at the moment is Ransom by David Malouf. Malouf is an exemplary writer and this is his first novel in ten years.

I've also bought The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John. Set in Australia in the 1960s. This novel was first published in 1993, disappeared, and has now been rediscovered. (I don't know what happened to it in 1993.)

The Dreaming and Other Essays by W.E.H. Stanner
By one of the most repected researchers of Aboriginal culture. One reviewer calls it: "...a masterpiece of accessible substance." Good Reading Magazine

I'll probably try A Most Immoral Woman by Linda Jaivin, based on the real-life characters of Australian adventurer Goerge Morrison and Mae Perkins, an American heiress. Set in 1920s China.

PRIZE-WINNERS
Miles Franklin Literary Award 2008 went to The Time We Have Taken by Steven Carroll
Prime Minister's Literary Award 2008 (Fiction Category) went to The Zookeeper's War by Steve Conte

Which reminds me: Steven Carrollhas a new novel out this month called The Lost Life which draws upon T.S. Eliot and his Four Quartets, using Eliot as a character and weaving aspects of the quartets into the prose. Interesting.

Good interview with David Malouf on ABC TV last night on Lateline (http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/)

Thanks twitham. I didn't see the interview and found the transcript interesting indeed. I'm probably about 389th on our local library's waiting list for Ransom.