The 2012 Indie Awards shortlist is out, winners to be announced on March 14th. The awards honour the best Aussie books for the previous year in four categories: fiction, non-fiction, debut fiction and children’s books. There’s also a ‘Book of the Year’ award.
Fiction
- Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks, update 3/6/16, see my review
- The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman, update 3/6/16, see my review
- Foal’s Bread by Gillian Mears, see my review
- Five Bells by Gail Jones, see Kim’s review at Reading Matters
Non-Fiction
- Worse Things Happen at Sea: Tales of Life, Love, Family and the Everyday Beauty in Between by William McInnes and Sarah Watt
- Notebooks by Betty Churcher, on my wishlist
- After Words by Paul Keating, see my review
- A Private Life: Fragments, Memories, Friends by Michael Kirby
Debut Fiction
- Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett, see my review
- All That I Am by Anna Funder, update 3/6/16, see my review
- The Roving Party by Rohan Wilson, see my review
- Watercolours by Adrienne Ferreira
Children’s Books
- The Jewel Fish of Karnak by Graeme Base (I have this in my school library, it’s gorgeous!)
- The Little Refugee by Anh and Suzanne Do (illustrated by Bruce Whatley)
- The Coming of the Whirlpool (Ship Kings) by Andrew McGahan
- The 13-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
A hard choice for the fiction prize, as I have read all and like them all. I think The Street Sweeper should win. I haven’t read any of the non fiction and only two of the debut fiction. I thought Past the Shallows was beautifully written and I fancy that one to win. The Roving Party was also excellent. As to the children’s I can’t recommend any, but I know my grandson would want to read the Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton’s novel if he had the choice.
Meg
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By: Meg on January 25, 2012
at 2:35 pm
I’ve been holding off reading The Street Sweeper because it’s in our ANZLL schedule for later in the year. I know I’m going to love it, I think Perlman is one of our best writers.
Actually, I don’t want to criticise the awards because I think any awards help authors and more power to whoever organises them, but I wish they had separate categories for picture books and ‘chapter books’. In picture books the illustrations are integral to the text and they ‘read’ in an entirely different way to text, even if there are illustrations in the ‘chapter books’. Graeme Base’s work is brilliantly complex and beautiful, and as you say, the Griffiths and Denton humour is totally different but every bit as good in its own way as that, and probably more popular with certain age groups.
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By: Lisa Hill on January 25, 2012
at 3:06 pm
So delighted to see Gail Jones Five Bells getting some recognition with this shortlisting. It was by far the most “literary” book I read last year — it made my top 10 — and yet I’ve barely seen it mentioned/reviewed on blogs/websites.
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By: kimbofo on January 26, 2012
at 9:46 am
Can you give me the link to the review on your site and I’ll add it?
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By: Lisa Hill on January 26, 2012
at 9:53 am
Thanks, Lisa.
My review is here: http://kimbofo.typepad.com/readingmatters/2011/06/five-bells-by-gail-jones.html
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By: kimbofo on January 26, 2012
at 10:30 pm
Thanks, Kim, I’ve added the referral link above.
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By: Lisa Hill on January 27, 2012
at 2:04 am
shame not one book is a translation Lisa ,but some interesting and new titles to me ,all the best stu
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By: winstonsdad on January 27, 2012
at 4:39 am
Stu, my understanding is that this award is for Australian authors, so I wouldn’t expect to see any books in translation on this list.
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By: kimbofo on January 27, 2012
at 8:13 am
Ah, but he has a point, Kim…Australia is a multilingual country with a large immigration program. I would be surprised if there weren’t authors writing in their own languages here, but whatever there is doesn’t make its way into the mainstream unless or until the book becomes available in English.
Also, some Aboriginal languages are still strong and perhaps there are authors writing in an indigenous language.
But I don’t know of any publishers who support Australian books in translation – but there should be one somewhere!
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By: Lisa Hill on January 27, 2012
at 10:08 am