The shortlists for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Prize have been announced. Books are shortlisted in the categories of Best Book and Best First Book in each of four different regions: Africa, Canada and Caribbean, Europe and South Asia, and South East Asia and the Pacific (Australia fits into the last of these regions). Winners for each category for each region are announced in March 2009, and then the overall winners in each category (chosen from the regional winners) will be announced in May 2009.
The shortlisted works for the South East Asia and the Pacific region are:
Best Book
Between The Assassinations by Aravind Adiga (Australia)
The Spare Room by Helen Garner (Australia)
The Good Parents by Joan London (Australia)
Forbidden Cities by Paula Morris (New Zealand)
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas (Australia)
Breath by Tim Winton (Australia)
Best First Book
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Australia)
The Boat by Nam Le (Australia)
The Year of The Shanghai Shark by Mo Zhi Hong (New Zealand)
Misconduct by Bridget van der Zijpp (New Zealand)
Evening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan (Malaysia)
The Shallow End by Ashley Sievwright (Australia)
[Links here will take you to "Combined Reviews" posts for the relevant books on this weblog. I'll aim to add entries for each of the other Australian books on the lists over the coming weeks.]
