Last modified on Mon 1 Feb 2021 02.46 EST
A first-time novelist has collected Australia’s richest literary prize with her apocalyptic and eerily-timed tale about a world in the throes of a pandemic.
Dr Laura Jean McKay took out the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature on Monday for The Animals in That Country, a debut novel described by Guardian reviewer Justine Jordan as a fierce and funny exploration of other consciousnesses, and the limits of language.
The prescient nature of the work is purely coincidental, McKay told the Guardian, speaking from her home in New Zealand’s Palmerston North, where she has been lecturing in creative writing at Massey University for the past 18 months. She began writing the novel six years before the world had heard of Covid-19.
I started knitting as pure procrastination Now it s opened up a whole new world for me
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Morning mail: Covid economy woes, Brexit deal expected, 2020 s funniest things
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Kate Grenville, Sofie Laguna, Julia Baird and others: the 20 best Australian books of 2020 Brigid Delaney, Beejay Silcox, Paul Daley, Steph Harmon, Stephanie Convery, Thuy On, Bec Kavanagh, Michael Williams, Paul Daley, Fiona Wright and Lucy Clark
1. Lucky’s by Andrew Pippos
Picador
This novel is a saga in the truest definition of that word, spanning more than 50 years of one Greek-Australian family and the rise and fall of their cafe franchise.
The story of Lucky’s follows various twists and turns of fortune and highlights the role of luck and serendipity in fate – almost like a Greek saga. Pippos skilfully weaves multiple story threads throughout the novel – the literary fraudster; the plucky journalist; the entrepreneurial Greek man who escapes service by impersonating a famous musician – but the most memorable parts of this book are the beautifully drawn characters and its warm heart.