2011, a great year for Australian fiction
Two new October new release novels by local writers Elliot Perlman and Alex Miller look set to cap off a brilliant year for Australian story writing. Within days of Perlman’s The Street Sweeper and Miller’s Autumn Laing arriving on the shelves, booksellers were ordering more copies, with several independents saying they had sold out after the first weekend.
Sydney writer Anna Funder’s All That I Am, debutante novelist Favel Parrett’s Past The Shallows, a TV-inspired resurgence of interest in The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas, and continued support for the Miles Franklin-shortlisted Bereft by Melbourne writer Chris Womersley – a real favorite in our bookshop – have all contributed to what is one of the strongest Australian fiction lists in years. At a time when bookshops are under siege from internet retailers, a strong Australia dollar, the Ebook phenomenon and a general retail malaise, it is cheering to know that bookworms will still invest in and support local storytelling.