Rodney Hall shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards
13 September 2019
Rodney Hall Shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards
A big congratulations to Rodney Hall for being nominated for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards!
Rodney Hall’s incredible 2018 novel, A Stolen Season, has been shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. The award celebrates Australian authors with outstanding literary merit. Six types of categories are awarded yearly to writers of fiction, non-fiction, young adult literature, children’s literature, poetry and Australian history A Stolen Season was nominated for best fiction. All shortlisted writers each receive $5000 and the winner receives $80,000. All of the 2019 winners will be announced later this year. A Stolen Season has captivated Australian audiences and was shortlisted for the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award earlier in the year.
‘Rodney Hall’s A Stolen Season interleaves three provocative stories of characters who are grasping at life from extremis: an Australian soldier severely wounded in Iraq survives in a mechanical exoskeleton and renegotiates his collapsed marriage; a wealthy bachelor wields an inherited art collection against social propriety; and a dance teacher seeks salvation from her husband’s crimes in the mysticism of Mayan culture. In a finely balanced narrative pyramid, the links between stories are subtle, sinister, and finally devastating. Hall’s chiselled sentences glint with controlled anger and wit, satirising Kafkaesque institutions of power while intimately depicting the victims of war, greed, corruption, and fateful decisions. A master novelist, Hall portrays the intersection of global issues and human nature in a complex, moving work that teases and troubles the reader long after the book ends.’