ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

I’m not sure about the wisdom of announcing this longlist at this time of the year when people are perhaps more frivolous than they usually are, but the 2016 Indie Book list was announced today.   (Thanks to Scribe’s Facebook page for the heads-up or I would have missed it altogether.)  But the Shortlist will be announced on 19 January 2016, and the category winners and the overall ‘Book of the Year’ winner will be announced on Tuesday, 22 March 2016.  And everyone will be paying attention then, because independent booksellers are the ones who stock the best of Australian literature and we love them dearly.  They are rather good at identifying what’s really good to read.

Without further ado (except for a *drum roll*) the Longlist for The Indie Book Awards 2016 is:

 FICTION LONGLIST

•  A Guide to Berlin by Gail Jones (Random House Australia) on my TBR
• Close Your Eyes by Michael Robotham (Hachette Australia)
• Hope Farm by Peggy Frew (Scribe Publications)
• Quicksand by Steve Toltz (Penguin Australia) see my review
• The Lake House by Kate Morton (Allen & Unwin)
• The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood (Allen & Unwin) on my TBR
• The Other Side of the World by Stephanie Bishop (Hachette Australia) see my review
• The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks (Hachette Australia) on my TBR
• The Wonder Lover by Malcolm Knox (Allen & Unwin)
• Useful by Debra Oswald (Penguin Australia)

 NON-FICTION LONGLIST

•  A Mother’s Story by Rosie Batty & Bryce Corbett (HarperCollins Australia)
• Adam Spencer’s World of Numbers by Adam Spencer (NewSouth Books)
• Bad Behaviour by Rebecca Starford (Allen & Unwin)
• Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover (HarperCollins Australia)
• Green Nomads by Bob Brown (Hardie Grant Books)
• Island Home by Tim Winton (Penguin Australia)
• Keating by Kerry O’Brien (Allen & Unwin)
• One Life by Kate Grenville (Text Publishing)
• Reckoning: A Memoir by Magda Szubanski (Text Publishing)
• The Anti-Cool Girl by Rosie Waterland (HarperCollins Australia)

 DEBUT FICTION LONGLIST

•  Anchor Point by Alice Robinson (Affirm Press) see my review
• Fever of Animals by Miles Allinson (Scribe Publications) see my review
• In The Quiet by Eliza Henry-Jones (HarperCollins Australia)
• Lost Swimmer by Ann Turner (Simon & Schuster Australia)
• Relativity by Antonia Hayes (Penguin Australia)
• Rush Oh! by Shirley Barrett (Pan Macmillan Australia)
• Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar (Pan Macmillan Australia) on my TBR
• The Anchoress by Robyn Cadwallader (HarperCollins Australia)
• The Secrets of Midwives by Sally Hepworth (Pan Macmillan Australia)
• When There’s Nowhere Else to Run by Murray Middleton (Allen & Unwin) see my review

 CHILDREN’S LONGLIST

• Mr Huff by Anna Walker (Penguin Australia)
• My Dog Bigsy by Alison Lester (Penguin Australia)
• Olive of Groves by Katrina Nannestad & Lucia Masciullo, Illus (HarperCollins Australia)
• Paper Planes by Steve Worland (Penguin Australia)
• Pig the Fibber by Aaron Blabey (Scholastic Australia)
• The 65-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton, Illus (Pan Macmillan Australia)
• The Bad Guys, Episode 1 by Aaron Blabey (Scholastic Australia)
• The Cat with the Coloured Tail by Gillian Mears & Dinalie Dabarera (Walker Books)
• The Singing Bones by Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin)
• Thelma the Unicorn by Aaron Blabey (Scholastic Australia)

 YOUNG ADULT LONGLIST

•  Cloudwish by Fiona Wood (Macmillan Australia)
• Green Valentine by Lili Wilkinson (Allen & Unwin)
• Pieces of Sky by Trinity Doyle (Allen & Unwin)
• Prince of Afghanistan by Louis Nowra (Allen & Unwin)
• Ranger’s Apprentice: The Early Years 1: The Tournament at Gorlan by John Flanagan (Random House Australia)
• Red Queen: Obernewtyn, Book 7 by Isobel Carmody (Penguin Australia)
• Risk by Fleur Ferris (Random House Australia)
• Sister Heart by Sally Morgan (Fremantle Press)
• Soon by Morris Gleitzman (Penguin Australia)
• The Flywheel by Erin Gough (Hardie Grant)