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Michelle de Kretser shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award

Michelle de Kretser shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award

The shortlist for the 2013 Miles Franklin Literary Award has been revealed and we are absolutely delighted to announce that it includes Michelle de Kretser's mesmerising novel Questions of Travel.

The judges commented on Michelle's novel that 'The stories intertwine and pull against one another, and within this double narrative, Michelle de Kretser explores questions of home and away... She brings these large questions close-up and personal with her witty and poignant observations, her vivid language.'

The Miles Franklin Award is one of Australia's longest-running and most prestigious literary awards. This year's winner will be announced on 19 June.

Find out more about the Award

See the full shortlist


Spotlight:

Moron to Moron

by Tom Doig

Uncrossable rivers! Hospitable nomads! Rabid dogs! Marijuana fields! Hailstone flashfloods! Maidens on horseback! Underpants wrestling! Toxic mountain-top lakes! Stupid westerners! And the mountain-biking - so much biking your arse will hurt just reading it.

Spotlight:

Song of the Slums

by Richard Harland

What if they'd invented rock 'n roll way back in the 19th century? What if it could take over the world and change the course of history?
An absorbing, page-turning story about fame, changing fortunes and music, set in an alternative Victorian world, from the brilliant creator of Worldshaker.

Spotlight:

The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society

by Darien Gee

A poignant and heartwarming story about a group of women who form deep friendships through their love of scrapbooking - as memories are preserved, dreams are shared, and surprising truths are revealed. A novel about heart, about family and finding ourselves in places where we least expect from the bestselling author of Friendship Bread.

Out now
Coming soon
Spotlight:

The Mystery of the Golden Card: Troubletwisters 3

by Garth Nix and Sean Williams

Can twins Jack and Jaide find the mysterious Golden Card of Translocation and make it out of Rourke Castle alive?
When eccentric Young Master Rourke dies in suspicious circumstances, troubletwisters Jack and Jaide are sent on a mission by their father to retrieve a lost Golden Card from somewhere within the vast Rourke estate. But secret agents for The Evil are also in pursuit of the card, and the troubletwister twins know that whoever finds it first will gain access to a Gift more powerful or terrible than any other. Together they negotiate secret passages, talking parrots and animated suits of armour, while trying to control their own fledgling Gifts. It rapidly becomes impossible to know who to trust and who might be an agent - even among those closest to them.

Spotlight:

Love, Sweat and Tears

by Zelie Bullen and Freda Marnie Nicholls

'All of the love that you put into your animals has come out on screen, on my screen and it will be there forever.' - Steven Spielberg
The inspirational true story of a remarkable young woman who overcame an unconventional childhood, personal tragedy and depression to work as a stunt woman and then as one of the most successful animal trainers in Australia, if not the world. Zelie's love of animals and their affection for her has kept her going during even her darkest moments, and ultimately this led her to the man she loves and to the amazing life she now leads.
Step inside Zelie's extraordinary world where she has worked with everyone from Princess Zahra, the Aga Khan's daughter, to Antonio Banderas, to the piglets in Babe and the war horse in Stephen Spielberg's epic film, War Horse.

Spotlight:

Jacob's Folly

by Rebecca Miller

Jacob's Folly tells the story of three people linked in the most unexpected of ways. Masha is a teenager born into an orthodox Jewish family, who longs to escape the claustrophobia of her home life; Leslie is a middle aged family man who also finds himself pushing against the constraints of all his responsibilities; while Jacob - well, Jacob is an eighteenth century man who finds himself reborn as a fly in the twenty-first century.
From this highly quirky premise, Rebecca Miller has conjured a novel full of warmth and insight, that offers a wonderful portrait of the intricacies of family life, and of the extent to which we are and are not in control of our own destinies. It marks Rebecca Miller as one of our most distinctive and beguiling novelists.

Spotlight:

The Perplexing Pineapple: The Cryptic Casebook of Coco Carlomagno (and Alberta) Bk 1

by Ursula Dubosarsky, illustrated by Terry Denton

Buenos Aires' Chief of Police, Coco Carlomagno, is sure his office high in the Obelisco is haunted. Every day at the same time he sees a floating pineapple and every day he hears a terrible noise. What could it mean? Who could it be? There's only one guinea pig Coco can turn to to help him in his hour of need: his logic-loving cousin Alberta. Can Alberta help him unravel the mysteries of the perplexing pineapple?

Spotlight:

She Left Me the Gun

by Emma Brockes

When Emma Brockes was ten years old, her mother said 'One day I will tell you the story of my life and you will be amazed." Growing up in a tranquil English village, Emma knew very little of her mother's life before her. She knew Paula had grown up in South Africa and had seven siblings. She had been told stories about deadly snakes and hailstones the size of golf balls. There was mention, once, of a trial. But most of the past was a mystery. When her mother dies of cancer, Emma - by then a successful journalist at the Guardian - is free to investigate the untold story. Her search begins in the Colindale library but then takes her to South Africa, to the extended family she has never met and their accounts of a childhood so different to her own. She encounters versions of the life her mother chose to leave behind - and realises what a gift her mother gave her.
Part investigation, part travelogue, part elegy, She Left Me the Gun is a gripping, funny and clear-eyed account of a writer's search for her mother's story.

Spotlight:

The Last King of Lydia

by Tim Leach

A beaten king stands on top of a pyre. His conqueror, the Persian warrior Cyrus, signals to his guards; they step forward and touch flaming torches to the dry wood. Croesus, once the richest man of the ancient world, is to be burned alive. As he watches the flames catch, Croesus looks over his life with clarity. He remembers the time he asked the old philosopher, Solon, who was the happiest man in the world. With his wealth, Croesus used to think it was him. But then his wealth could not remove the spear from his dying son's chest; could not cure the mute boy with matted hair; could not make him as wise as his own slave; could not bring his wife's love back; could not stop his army being torn apart and his kingdom defeated. As the old philosopher had replied, a man's happiness can only be measured when he is dead. The first coils of smoke wrap around Croesus' neck like a noose.

Spotlight:

We Won't Back Down

by Rupert Guinness

With major wins in the bag from its first year of racing, Orica-GreenEDGE, Australia's first professional men and women's international road cycling team, has already made its mark at the highest levels of international competition. This is the story of that year as told through the images of the photographers who have followed the team since its launch, with words from Rupert Guinness, Australia's foremost cycling journalist. Taking readers into the heart of the team, this behind the scenes portrait records the highs and lows of the inaugural year, the very special team personality, and the races won and lost. Big, beautiful and revealing, We Won't Back Down is a book for every Australian cycling fan.

Spotlight:

Reboot

by Amy Tintera

Five years ago, Wren Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation). Wren's favorite part of the job is training new Reboots, but her latest newbie is the worst she's ever seen. As a 22, Callum Reyes is practically human. His reflexes are too slow, he's always asking questions, and his ever-present smile is freaking her out. Yet there's something about him she can't ignore. When Callum refuses to follow an order, Wren is given one last chance to get him in line - or she'll have to eliminate him. Wren has never disobeyed before and knows if she does, she'll be eliminated, too. But she has also never felt as alive as she does around Callum. The perfect soldier is done taking orders.

Spotlight:

Three Hours Late

by Nicole Trope

Once, so very long ago, she had watched him like this when he came to pick her up from a date...Her stomach fluttered and burned with infatuation and desire. She would watch him walk up the path and think, 'This must be love.'
But that was so very long ago. Now Liz is wary and afraid. She has made a terrible mistake and it cannot be undone.
Alex believes that today will be the day she comes back to him. Today will be the day his wife and young son finally come home. Today they will be a family again.
But Liz knows that some things can never be mended. Some marriages are too broken. Some people are too damaged. Now the most important thing in her life is her son, Luke, and she will do anything in her power to protect him.
So when Alex is a few minutes late bringing Luke back Liz begins to worry and when he is an hour late her concern grows and when he is later still she can feel her whole life changing because: what if Alex is not just late?
The terrible secrets of a marriage, the love that can turn to desperation, the refuge and heartbreak of being a parent, the fragile threads that cradle a family...Three Hours Lateis a gripping and deeply emotional novel of almost unbearable suspense from a writer of great insight and empathy.

Spotlight:

Wallaby Warrior

by Greg Growden

Tom Richards is the only Australian-born Test rugby player to have played for both Australia and the British Lions. When the Australian team won the Gold Medal for rugby at the 1908 Olympic Games, the London Times pronounced: 'If ever the Earth had to select a Rugby Football team to play against Mars, Tom Richards would be the first player chosen.'
With an introduction by leading Australian rugby writer Greg Growden, Richards's diaries offer wonderful insights into his extraordinary sporting life, but more importantly provide perceptive and acute observations of the brutality and the humanity he observed on the front lines of World War I. His diaries are a revealing and very personal account of what occurred throughout the Gallipoli campaign and then the Western Front, where he received a Military Cross for his courage under German fire. As a great observer of human tragedy and frailties, Richards is acerbic in his opinions and often critical of his superiors and fellow soldiers, repeatedly finding fault with the British in charge. But it is his vivid descriptions of the many other characters who crossed his path that confirm this to be a significant contribution to our understanding of the Great War.
Wallaby Warrior is a rich and intimate observation of life from a very different time by one of Australia's greatest rugby players, and the man after whom the trophy for rugby union tests between Australia and the British Lions is named.

Spotlight:

Fetch the Treasure Hunter: The Debt Instalment Four

by Phillip Gwynne

So must thou bear witness also at Rome ...
Dom should not be going to Rome with the rest of the track team. He wasn't good enough. He knows it. Coach knows it. Rashid, who should be going but isn?t, knows it. But it seems The Debt has other plans.
So it's not long before Dom finds himself in Italy receiving the fourth instalment. He is to find E Lee Marx, the world's greatest treasure hunter who's become a recluse following the tragic death of his nephew in a diving accident, and bring him back to the Gold Coast. It will require manipulation and deception, but Dom is fast becoming a master at both. So much so that when he's in Italy, Dom decides to do a little digging of his own. He travels to Calabria, to the very place where The Debt originated.
But the answers Dom gets only lead to more questions. One thing is certain: whatever The Debt wants, they get.

Spotlight:

The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs

by Nick Trout

'A delightful, endearing, and frequently hilarious story of a man who lost his way and found it again through a plate of meatloaf, a frigid Vermont winter, and a pair partially digested, oversized red silk boxer shorts ... a story that reminds us of the truth that is hidden away in our hearts: loving our animals is a sure way to heal our souls.' - Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain
Dr. Cyrus Mills reluctantly returns home to rural Eden Falls, Vermont under dire personal circumstances to revive The Bedside Manor for Sick Animals, the failing veterinary practice of his recently deceased and long estranged father. Under the wing of his new mentor, Doc Lewis, Cyrus - who was previously a reclusive pathologist, far more comfortable with cold clinical facts than living, breathing animals (not to mention their quirky, demanding owners) - begins to learn what it takes to win the hearts of his pet patients and their owners. Cyrus has a simple plan: restore and sell his deceased father's practice as quickly as possible and then leave the hometown that haunts him with difficult memories. Then his first patient, a down-on-her-luck Golden Retriever named Frieda Fuzzypaws, wags her way through the door, and suddenly life gets complicated. With the help of a Black Labrador gifted in the art of swallowing underwear, a terrier whose days are numbered, a Persian cat determined to expose her owner's lover as a gold digger, and the allure of a feisty, gorgeous waitress from the local diner, Cyrus gets caught up in a new community and its endearing and eccentric residents, both human and animal. He grudgingly realizes that he may have misjudged his father and the rift that tore them apart, and if that's the case, coming to terms with the past will be the only way he can face an uncertain future. And perhaps it's not just his patients that need healing.
'Grab this book. I'm not kidding. You're going to love this story. There's romance, redemption, a dog named Frieda and a whole lot more. This is the a book you won't ever want to end.' - Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author