Once again, Perry has done us proud and posted the latest news about the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards Shortlists for 2009, over at Matilda.
For once, I’ve read nearly all of the fiction shortlist, mainly because they’re recycled from the Miles Franklin shortlist.
The only one I haven’t come across is Dog Boy by Eva Hornung (who used to be Eva Sallis, I think), and of the others, Nam Le’s collection of short stories, The Boat is the only one I haven’t reviewed. (Update: see here and here, respectively).
Of the others, my reviews are as follows:
The Pages by Murray Bail
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
Breath by Tim Winton
I’d like The Pages to win. It’s a very interesting book.
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
I haven’t read The Pages yet, I will add it to the ever expanding TBR list.
Re Dog Boy, there was an interesting interview with Eva Hornug on Literary Minded a while back- the link is http://blogs.crikey.com.au/literaryminded/2009/03/09/eva-hornung-on-dog-boy-writing-and-activism/
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By: adevotedreader on August 12, 2009
at 7:33 am
Hmm, yes, interesting. I have read something by Hornung (Hiam) but passed on Fire, Fire.
I’m a little dubious about books that are written to promote a political POV because they’re usually so transparent and the story has to be manipulated to fit the politics…Of course all authors have POVs about all kinds of things, and they’re usually discernable in the books they write, but that’s different to actually setting out to write a book for a social purpose. Richard Flanagan – who is one of Australia’s finest writers – wrote The Unknown Terrorist because he was angst-ridden about the anti-terrorism laws; it was a woeful book.
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By: Lisa Hill on August 12, 2009
at 6:31 pm
[…] Favorite Lit-Blog Things – August 12, 2009 ANZ LitLovers LitBlog has the scoop on several contenders on the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards fiction […]
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By: My Favorite Lit-Blog Things – August 12, 2009 « Hungry Like the Woolf on August 12, 2009
at 11:14 pm