Yay! Melissa Lucashenko has won the 2019 Miles Franklin Award for her novel Too Much Lip. I am so pleased!
I told you it was a great book back when I reviewed it a year ago:
With great characterisation which includes a helpful ghost and a talking shark, plus a compelling plot which includes a dash of romance, Too Much Lip laces grim realism with witty dialogue, and a message of hope and future reconciliation. This is Lucashenko’s best book yet.
Let’s not forget the shortlisted books, which are all great reading too.
- The Lebs by Michael Mohammed Ahmad (Hachette Australia), see Kim’s review at Reading Matters
- Sand Archive by Gregory Day (Picador Australia), see my review
- A Stolen Season by Rodney Hall (Picador Australia), see my review
- The Death of Noah Glass by Gail Jones (Text Publishing)
- Dyschronia by Jennifer Mills (Picador Australia), see my review
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
I’ll look it up. Read the Death of Noah Glass but I have yet to review it.
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By: Guy Savage on July 30, 2019
at 11:28 pm
Hi Guy, it would be great if you could, I haven’t found anyone who has so it would good to link to your review from here.
(I haven’t got it, and I’m not going to read it until I’ve read Guide to Berlin first.)
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By: Lisa Hill on July 31, 2019
at 9:48 am
I was reading the summaries in the Guardian today and think I might try Sand Archive.
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By: wadholloway on July 31, 2019
at 12:09 am
That is such a good book! And — hey! — it’s about roads! Well, not really, it’s about much more than roads, it’s the Great Ocean Road which was in all our hearts before it became clogged up with tourists. Do you remember when there was no speed limit on it? The Ex had done a speed driving course and was a rally driver and we barrelled around that road in an open-top Renault Floride so fast you could hardly see the scenery!
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By: Lisa Hill on July 31, 2019
at 9:53 am
Very exciting news!
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By: karenlee thompson on July 31, 2019
at 6:08 am
Indeed it is!
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By: Lisa Hill on July 31, 2019
at 9:54 am
How hopeless am I. I had in my head it was being announced next week. I was out at reading group last night and didn’t see any news when I got home as I got straight into writing the report of our meeting for the group. I only heard the news on Radio National this morning!
Like you, I’m thrilled. I had hoped this one would win, because it ticks all the boxes – storytelling, literary quality, and significant meaning.
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By: whisperinggums on July 31, 2019
at 11:01 am
And really enjoyable entertaining reading as well. I take my hat off to all the new crop of indigenous writers who are producing good stories that are interesting for any mainstream reader to enjoy yet also tell the discomfiting truths we need to know.
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By: Lisa Hill on July 31, 2019
at 11:09 am
Yes, me too. Wonderful.
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By: whisperinggums on July 31, 2019
at 12:10 pm