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The titles longlisted for this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award have been announced.

The longlisted titles are:

    * Lovesong (Alex Miller, A&U)
    * The Bath Fugues (Brian Castro, Giramondo Publishing)
    * Jasper Jones (Craig Silvey, A&U)
    * Sons of the Rumour (David Foster, Picador)
    * The Book of Emmett (Deborah Forster, Vintage)
    * Siddon Rock (Glenda Guest, Vintage)
    * Boy on a Wire (Jon Doust, Fremantle Press)
    * Figurehead (Patrick Allington, Black Inc.)
    * Parrot and Olivier in America (Peter Carey, Hamish Hamilton)
    * Truth (Peter Temple, Text Publishing)
    * Butterfly (Sonya Hartnett, Penguin)
    * The People’s Train (Thomas Keneally, Knopf).

This year’s judging panel was made up of Morag Fraser, Richard Neville, Gillian Whitlock, Lesley McKay and Murray Waldren. Said Fraser: ‘It is exciting to discover new voices, and even more so when they are as accomplished and challenging as the debut authors on this year’s Miles Franklin longlist. The newcomers stand alongside some of the great names of Australian literature, writers who have helped define Australian culture and deepen our understanding of ourselves. For range and diversity, this is an outstanding Miles Franklin list.’

Deborah Foster, Glenda Guest and Patrick Allington have all been nominated for debut novels; Alex Miller, Thomas Keneally, Peter Carey and David Foster have all previously won the award.

The award shortlist will be announced in April, with the winner to be awarded at a presentation dinner on 22 June. 

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/03/15206/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

The shortlist for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, South East Asia and Pacific, has been announced.

The Best Book nominees are:

    * Summertime by J M Coetzee (Knopf, Australia)
    * A Good Land by Nada Awar Jarrar (HarperCollins, Australia)
    * The Adventures of Vela by Albert Wendt (University of Hawaii Press, Samoa)
    * Singularity by Charlotte Grimshaw (Vintage, New Zealand)
    * The People’s Train by Thomas Keneally (Vintage, Australia)
    * Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey (Hamish Hamilton, Australia).

All nominees for Best First Book in the South East Asia and Pacific region are Australian. They are:

    * The Ice Age by Kirsten Reed (Text)
    * After the Fire, a Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld (Vintage)
    * Look Who’s Morphing by Tom Cho (Giramondo)
    * Document Z by Andrew Croome (A&U)
    * Come Inside by Glenys Osborne (Clouds of Magellan)
    * Siddon Rock by Glenda Guest (Vintage).

Regional chair for South East Asia and Pacific Anne Brewster said the ‘high standard of books in the South East Asia and Pacific region this year ensured that the shortlisting process was a challenge for the judges’.

‘The books ranged from a focus on historical themes to those whose authors explore the complexities of the contemporary world, she said. ‘Some of the shortlisted writers are experimenting with form–incorporating poetry, discontinuous narrative and performative modes into the traditional genre of the novel. They explore transnational links both within the region and farther afield–in Europe and North America. The judges were pleased to see small independent publishers well-represented in the shortlisting, especially in the Best First Book category where they play a vital role in developing new writers.’

The two overall winners will be announced in Delhi, India, on 12 April, where finalists from all the different regions of the Commonwealth will gather.

Last year’s overall Best Book winner was Christos Tsiolkas for The Slap (A&U).

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/02/14966/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

 Cloudstreet by Tim Winton has been voted the winner of the Australian Book Review’s Favorite Australian Novels poll.

‘A perennial favourite since its publication in 1991, [Cloudstreet] was the overwhelming favourite-by a margin of three to one to its nearest rival, Henry Handel Richardson’s The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, which was closely followed by Patrick White’s Voss and Winton’s most recent novel, Breath,’ said ABR editor Peter Rose. Oscar and Lucinda (Peter Carey) came in at number five.

Rose said the poll had received thousands of votes for almost 300 novels. A list of all 290 nominated titles can be found on the ABR website here.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/02/14716/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

Several Australian authors are to appear on 55c stamps in the latest ‘Australian Legends’ set of Australia Post stamps, released last week. The authors to appear are David Malouf, Peter Carey, Bryce Courtenay, Thomas Keneally, Tim Winton and Colleen McCullough. The inclusion of only one female author sparked debate in the online publishing community, with visitors to Penguin Australia’s Facebook page nominating female authors including Germaine Greer, Helen Garner, Kate Grenville, Judith Wright and Dorothy Porter as contenders for the honour.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/01/14591/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

The festive fever has finally hit the book media–reviewers and readers put their Christmas book choices forward in a national effort to inspire book lovers in their Christmas purchases this season. Peter Carey’s new book Parrot and Olivier in America came in at number one, followed closely by Tom Keneally’s Australians: Origins to Eureka and Ray Martin’s autobiography Ray: Stories of My Life. Let’s hope that the enthusiasm for local titles in our media translates to Christmas dollars for our authors.

Most mentioned in the Media this week

1 Parrot and Olivier in America, by Peter Carey
2 Ray: Stories of My Life, by Ray Martin
3 Australians: Origins to Eureka, Volume 1, by Thomas Keneally
4 Clever: Leading Your Smartest, Most Creative People, by Rob Goffee
5 Eating Animals, by Jonathon Safran Foer

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2009/12/14210/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

Peter Carey continues his reign of the Most Mentioned chart in MX this week. His new book Parrot and Olivier in America has been receiving some very positive reviews. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest–Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s awaited final book in the ‘Millennium’ trilogy–is also continuing to appear in the review pages, as is Ray Martin’s autobiography Ray: Stories of My Life. Alex Miller’s Lovesong and David Foster’s Sons of the Rumour also feature strongly on the chart this week.

Most mentioned in the Media this week

1 Lovesong, by Alex Miller
2 Parrot and Olivier in America, by Peter Carey
3 Sons of the Rumour, by David Foster
4 Ray: Stories of My Life, by Ray Martin
5 Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, The by Stieg Larsson

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2009/11/13875/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

Several Australian and New Zealand authors are among those whose works have been longlisted for the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Longlisted titles include: People of the Book (Geraldine Brooks, HarperPerennial); The White Tiger (Aravind Adiga, Atlantic) His Illegal Self (Peter Carey, Vintage) The Rehearsal (Eleanor Catton, A&U) God of Speed (Luke Davies, A&U); The 10pm Question (Kate de Goldi, A&U); Wanting (Richard Flanagan, Vintage); The Spare Room (Helen Garner, Text); The Forgotten Garden (Kate Morton, A&U); Sonata for Miriam (Linda Olsson, Penguin); Novel About My Wife (Emily Perkins, A&U); A Fraction of the Whole (Steve Toltz, Penguin); The Slap (Christos Tsiokas, A&U); Breath (Tim Winton, Penguin); and Sea of Many Returns (Arnold Zable, Text).

A shortlist of up to 10 titles in the running for the €100,000 (A$194,000) prize is due to be announced in the first quarter of 2010. For more information click here.

source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2009/11/13856/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

Peter Carey is one of Australia’s finest writers, and a two-time winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize, so a new novel is always a major event. In recent years he has been more prolific than ever, with Parrot and Olivier in America following hard on the heels of His Illegal Self and Theft before it. After those two novels, and My Life as a Fake, which were all set in the 20th-century, Carey has made a return to the 19th-century in his new work. It’s a time period that has been fruitful for him, with both of his Man Booker Prize-winning novels, Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang, being set in that century. Parrot and Olivier in America is a fictionalised ‘reimagining’ of Alexis de Tocqueville’s journey to America, which formed the basis of his hugely influential work Democracy in America. In Carey’s novel he has been transformed into Olivier de Garmont, a somewhat feckless young French aristocrat whose parents narrowly avoided the guillotine during the revolution. In order to save Olivier from the political situation in 1830s France, his mother ships him off to America on the pretext of studying American prisons, a job which he comes to take quite seriously. Accompanying him is John Larrit, or ‘Parrot’, an English servant who is rather reluctant to serve, and who has a fascinating history of his own. As he has done in his previous few novels, Carey makes good use of alternating points of view, with the chapters being narrated by Olivier and Parrot in turn. This technique gives all of the advantages of a first person narrator, including having a distinctive ‘voice’, without being restricted by a single perspective on events. Carey populates the novel with a number of other distinctive characters, including the one-armed Marquis de Tilbot, the forger Algernon Watkins who aspires to produce ‘the best book of birds the world has ever seen’ (Carey is obviously inspired by John James Audubon here), and Martine, an artist’s assistant whose work surpasses her master’s. Carey is at the peak of his powers as a novelist and Parrot and Olivier in America fits into a long tradition of picaresque tales about journeying to America, including Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders and John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor. Fans of Carey’s work won’t need much encouragement to pick this up, but it should have widespread appeal in Australia and overseas.

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine (October 2009, Vol 89, No. 3) is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

If there were a prize for the novel with the most misleading cover, Stealing Picasso would win it. A woman’s elegant chignon, a gilt picture frame, curlicued gold handwriting–all these elements combine to create a cover sure to appeal to the Coco Chanel set. This book, however, is blokey– extremely blokey. Harry, a struggling art student living in bohemian squalor, is seduced by a sophisticated foreign woman. The two conspire to steal Picasso’s ‘Weeping Woman’ from an art gallery, thereby kick-starting a chaotic chain of mishaps marked by double-dealing, wanton violence and sheer comic ineptitude. The characters in the book constitute a grimy gallery of grotesques–smarmy bureaucrats, psychopathic bikers, a twisted tycoon and, in a piece of unfortunate timing, a gay Michael Jackson impersonator-turned-pimp. Thanks to these characters, the novel is humorous, though the humour is of the blackest variety. While Stealing Picasso has overtones of Peter Carey’s My Life As a Fake, with both books loosely based around episodes in Australia’s cultural history, it is closer in spirit to the Robert G Barrett ‘Les Norton’ crime series– books with a very different readership. The challenge will be to ensure this book reaches the right audience.

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine (March 2009, Vol 88, No 6.) is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

Penguin Australia has announced it will publish Peter Carey’s forthcoming novel Parrot and Olivier in America.

Carey, whose most recent novels His Illegal Self, Theft and My Life as a Fake were published by Random House Australia under its Knopf imprint, will join Penguin authors Tim Winton, Nam Le, Robert Drewe and Chloe Hooper on Penguin’s Hamish Hamilton list.

Carey said he was ‘very excited indeed to be published by Penguin Australia’. ‘Not only is there a great new energy in the company, Penguin is also the sales force that sold Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang so well, so it’s both dynamic and familiar,’ he said, referring to the novels originally published by UQP and distributed by Penguin’s UBD distribution arm.

Carey’s move to Penguin follows the departure in June last year of Random House publisher Carol Davidson, whom Carey had followed to RHA from UQP in 2003.

Penguin publisher Ben Ball said Carey could ‘see something good happening’ at Penguin.

Parrot and Oliver in America, which Ball said is set in the US and ‘a little bit’ in Australia, is about the birth of modern America and is due to be published in Australia and New Zealand in November this year, with international publication due in 2010 by Faber.

‘That is not hugely calculated, but we do see it as an opportunity to publish our most garlanded writer here first,’ said Ball of the early local publication.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2009/05/11860/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker