"The Sydney Morning Herald" has announced its list of the best of Australian Literature for 2005.
Best Fiction:
The Ballad of Desmond Kale by Roger McDonald
The Secret River by Kate Grenville
Original Face by Nicholas Jose
Best Crime:
The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
Best Fantasy:
Slaughterboy by Odo Hirsch
Best Young Adult:
How Hedley Hopkins Did A Dare .. by Paul Jennings
Ziggy and the Plugfish by Jonathan Harlen
The Silver Donkey by Sonya Hartnett
Best Debut:
Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany
Best Non-Fiction:
The Commonwealth of Thieves by Tom Keneally
Telling the Truth About Aboriginal History by Bain Attwood
Snowtown by Jeremy Putney
Best Poetry:
Geology by Kevin Murray
The People Singers by John Millett
Unfinished Journey by Michael Thwaites
Freehold by Geoff Page
The Well Mouth by Philip Salom
The New Arcadia by John Kinsella
Friendly Fire by Jennifer Maiden
The Past Completes Me: Selected Poems 1973-2003 by Alan Gould
Comment: I've read a grand total of two of these - the Temple and the Hartnett. Kate Grenville and Tom Keneally are on my summer reading list. Not a good return after my 2005 intention to read a lot more Australian literature. I put it down to reading a lot that was published in 2004. Well, I have to find some excuse.
