Sunday, May 24, 2020

Ten of the best Australian novels

Susan Allott is from the UK but spent part of her twenties in Australia, desperately homesick but trying to make Sydney her home. She completed the Faber Academy course in 2017, during which she started writing her debut novel, The Silence. She now lives in south London with her two children and her very Australian husband.

At CrimeReads, Allott tagged ten favorite Australian titles, including:
Tim Winton, Dirt Music (2001)

Tim Winton is Australia’s literary God, and deservedly so. His writing is colloquial, fresh, sharp. He captures the landscape, wildlife and people of Australia with such precision and economy, his books can be savored for the language alone, although he tells a good yarn too. His novel Cloudstreet is considered by many to be the Great Australian Novel. I’ve picked Dirt Music because it’s such a great example of Winton’s ability to put a character through hell and pull her out again the other side, taking us with her. It’s also a romantic novel about an intense love affair that is moving and never sentimental. It was shortlisted for the Booker in 2002 and it won the Miles Franklin award in the same year. Probably his best in my opinion, but you can’t go wrong with anything by Tim Winton, including his non-fiction.
Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue