(Imported from Blogger; formatting glitches need to be fixed)
Congratulations to all the writers longlisted for this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award including the following:
- Charlotte Wood, Animal People
- Favel Parrett, Past the Shallows
- Gillian Mears, Foal’s Bread
- Gail Jones, Five Bells
- Kate Grenville, Sarah Thornhill
- Anna Funder, All that I Am
- Virginia Duigan, The Precipice
The following readers have linked their reviews to the AWW challenge page (in order of date the first review for each book appeared).
Past the Shallows
All that I Am
Foal’s Bread
- Angela of Literary Minded: “I do recommend taking Foal’s Bread in bit by bit, unless you’re in the mood to be devastated and overwhelmed” (more)
- Christina Houen: “After a year of reviewing some forgettable novels, this one stood out like a bright red full moon rising over the horizon, triumphant, lovely, full of passion and suggestive of dark rites and sacrifice” (more)
- Sue T of Whispering Gums: “Mears does for horse high-jumping what Winton did for surfing [in Breath]. She made me feel the joy and beauty of the jump, of pushing oneself to achieve just that little bit more in a risky sport, of having a dream that keeps you going, of doing “the impossible” (more)
Animal People
- Maree Kimberly (GoodReads): “Wood is a deft and able writer with an eye for detail that adds light and shade to the mundane” (more)
- Stella Orbit: “Charlotte Wood has written a book that casts a bright, almost forensic, light on the way we live today” (more)
- Michelle of Book to the Future: “I really, really want you to read this novel…” (more)
- Lia Weston, author of The Fortunes of Ruby White (Simon & Schuster 2010): “brilliantly done, devastating to the final page” (more)
Five Bells
- Brenda (GoodReads): “I wish I’d liked this more, because some of the writing is lovely” (more)
- Lucy Perkins, Lines Between Reads: “the quality of Jones’s prose, which is unfailingly lyrical, particularly in its evocation of the physical environment. Sydney itself features almost as a character in its own right” (more)
- Shelleyrae, Book’d Out: “Gail Jones begins Five Bells with an evocative depiction of a sunny day in Sydney’s Circular Quay. I felt as if I stood in amongst the ebb and flow of the crowd, feeling the sun on my face, scenting the salt air, hearing the chug of the ferry and the squeal of a slowing train.” (more)
- Sue Driscoll (GoodReads): “Loved the concept and the characters – a great snapshot of the diversity of people on any one day around Sydney harbour… would have liked the book to be longer” (more)
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So, which books are missing from the AWW reviews? Kate Grenville’s Sarah Thornhill (which has been widely reviewed elsewhere, including by Lisa Hill on ANZ LitLovers blog) and Virginia Duigan’s The Precipice.
Here’s a challenge. Who’ll be the first to review The Precipice for AWW?
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