The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award is for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of 35. It comes with $20,000 in prizemoney and publication of the winning novel.
This year’s award has been announced and the winner is Paul D. Carter for his ‘Eleven seasons’.
Previous winners are some of the most admired writers of contemporary Australian fiction: Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Gillian Mears and Andrew McGahan. Continue reading
This is a rather unusual book.
It presents itself as a crime thriller, the story of Tess, a missing young pregnant woman, later found dead in a toilet building, presumably by suicide.
Beatrice, her older sister, didn’t believe it, because it’s totally out of Tess’s character, a life-loving, joyous optimistic person, and because of other suspicious circumstances: there was cystic fibrosis in the family history, so Tess went through a trial test for genetic therapy for her unborn baby – the baby was supposedly cured but died of another disease.
Beatrice tried to unravel all the cover-ups, originally suspecting everyone – the illegitimate father of the baby, the love-struck college student in Tess’s class etc… She ended up finding the real truth: the cure trial test that Tess went through was hijacked by a rogue doctor who did his own genetic enhancement test, then murdered first the baby, then the mother to cover his trail. Continue reading
Hugh Mackay is a social researcher and writer. He is the author of thirteen books, including six bestsellers. His latest book, What makes us tick? The ten desires that drive us, came out in 2010. Continue reading
Miles Franklin Award 2012 Longlist has been announced recently. Since the the first winner, Patrick White, for his book Voss in 1957, the prize has been awarded to novels describing life in suburbia, compulsive gamblers, Australians abroad – but always true to the terms of Miles Franklin’s will: ‘[the] prize shall be awarded for the novel for the year which is of the highest literary merit and which must present Australian life in any of its phases …’. The award also causes confusion and attracts criticism.
The theme for March is reading that makes you THINK. If you want to read something that makes you think have a look at these suggestions for both fiction and non fiction titles Continue reading