Losing nouns

There's a satisfyingly diverse range of authors shortlisted for the Miles Franklin this year - Indigenous, Vietnamese, Iranian, an Indian and two Anglos making the list.  All their novels are highly literary, even experimental, and (like this year's Stella) it's great that several small publishers are represented. But, and this may seem avaricious, the fact is that booksellers and publishers don't get much of a sales spike if readers deem the winning book to be too ‘literary’ or ‘difficult’ or ‘hard to get into’. It can be a hard sell, which is a pity because that's what literary prizes are for - raising the profile of the author, giving them much-needed prize money and increasing sales of their book/s. Having said that, being shortlisted for this country's major literary award is wonderful recognition for the writers and their publishers, and I congratulate them all.

 As a ‘bricks and mortar’ bookseller, one can't help but admit to a little schadenfreude over the demise of the online retailer Booktopia. Booksellers are by and large, very collegiate, often directing customers to each other if unable to supply a book for whatever reason. But these monolithic online bookstores have done everything they can to undercut us, with some aggressively setting out to send Indies out of business. But we survive and thrive despite the difficult circumstances we all find ourselves in economically (I will not use THAT term). At least Booktopia was an Australian company and the sad thing is now online shoppers will resort to the big American that bricks and mortar booksellers consider the enemy. Think about where your money is going when you shop with them.

At once funny and poignant and a little suspenseful, with beautifully drawn characters, it is Nash’s wonderful wordplay with Rose's voice that makes this book sing. A truly lovely hovel, sorry -  novel. 

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