Ten of the best Booker-nominated books by Australian authors

Beyond its natural wonders, exquisite beaches and deadly wildlife, Australia is rightly famous for its writers, and has arguably produced more than its fair share of Booker Prize-nominated authors over the years. The prize may be awarded at a London ceremony to the author of a book published in the UK and/or Ireland, but it has always mattered to Australians. Speaking to the Guardian in 2022, Michael Williams, editor of Australian magazine The Monthly, said that ‘Unmistakeably, the Booker still holds power here’. Winning it, he added, is ‘an act of instant canonisation’.

By that reckoning, Thomas Keneally became Australia’s first living literary saint after winning the Booker Prize in 1982. Richard Flanagan became the most recent, in 2014. Peter Carey is the only Aussie to have won the Booker twice, while Adelaide-born D.B.C. Pierre and Australia-raised Aravind Adiga scooped the award in 2003 and 2008 respectively – all proving that even while geographically removed from the main hubs of the English-language fiction scene, Australian authors can stand alongside the best of them. (Australians might even claim South Africa-born J.M. Coetzee as one of their own, although he only became an Australian citizen in 2006, seven years after his second Booker triumph.) No Australian woman has yet won the Booker, but Kate Grenville, Gail Jones and Madeleine St John have been nominated. 

With the Australian Open tennis tournament just passed, we thought it was a good time to revisit the leading Australians who have earned their place in the Hall of Fame of the world’s foremost literary grand slam. Surprisingly, it will be 10 years this year since the last Australian won the Booker Prize – perhaps this will finally be their year again?

The Bay of Noon by Shirley Hazzard

The Bay of Noon, published in 1970 was shortlisted for 2010’s Lost Man Booker Prize, a one-off award to honour books that missed out on the Booker Prize in 1970 due to a rule change. The novel follows Jenny, a young English woman who starts working for NATO as a translator in post-World War II Naples. Jenny immerses herself in the culture, befriending locals including Gioconda, a beautiful writer, Gioconda’s lover Gianni, a womanising filmmaker, and Justin, a somewhat dour Scottish co-worker. As Jenny becomes entangled in Gioconda and Gianni’s relationship, she finds herself out of her depth and ‘a game of sexual musical chairs’, as one reviewer put it, ensues. Hazzard, born in Sydney in 1931, worked for the UN in Naples for a year and described the novel as her love letter to the Italian city. 

The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser

The Lost Dog revolves around an Indian-Australian professor, Tom Loxley, who moves to a remote cottage in the Australian bush while trying to finish his novel about author Henry James. While there, his dog goes missing and so Loxley sets out to find him, with artist Nelly Zhang accompanying him on the search. According to de Kretser, dogs appear in all of her novels: ‘My dogs are the only beings in my books who are drawn directly from life.’ Longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2008, the novel alternates between the past and the present, reverting to Loxley’s early life in India with his mother, Iris, whose health is now declining. The plot also explores the mystery of Nelly’s lost husband and Tom and Nelly’s budding romance. According to the Guardian, de Kretser describes the book’s dual locales with ‘persuasive vitality and an ethical alertness that gives keen observation relevance and wit.’ De Kretser was born in Sri Lanka but has lived in Australia for most of her life.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

Described by the Washington Post as ‘one of our greatest living novelists’, Flanagan was born in a remote mining town in Tasmania and was inspired to write 2014’s Booker Prize winner, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by his father’s experience on the Burma Death Railway during the Second World War. ‘I had known for a long time that this was the book I had to write if I was to keep on writing,’ Flanagan said. The story centres around Australian doctor Dorrigo Evans, a war veteran who is lauded for his actions as a prisoner of war in charge of 700 men, but wracked with guilt and a sense of failure, haunted by an affair with his uncle’s wife.

The Secret River by Kate Grenville

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2006, The Secret River was inspired by Grenville’s own great-great-great grandfather, Solomon Wiseman, who was born in London but sent to New South Wales as a convict in 1806 after stealing wood. The novel focuses on William Thornhill, who, similarly, is sent to Australia from London after committing a crime – there, he builds a new life, farming land on the edge of the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales. Centring on the colonisation of 19th century Australia and the treatment of First Nations people, The Secret River, described by the Independent as a ‘compressed epic of the unenfranchised’, presents in unflinching detail the conflicts and brutality that existed at the time.

Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

Remembering Babylon tells the story of a 13-year-old British boy, Gemmy Fairley who is cast ashore in Queensland where he is raised by First Nations people. After 16 years, English settlers arrive in the area and Gemmy is taken back into British Colonial society, struggling with his new identity. Malouf was born in Brisbane, with his work tending to be mostly set in Australia, specifically in or around Brisbane. In an interview with the Antipodes journal, he said, ‘Often when I find myself moved by something I want to write about, it presents itself to me in a place that has the light and texture and air of that place I grew up in.’ Remembering Babylon was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1993, while Malouf’s entire body of work was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2011.