Undercover

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday February 16, 2008

Susan Wyndham

HARD WORK REWARDED

In a rare decision by the Australia Council for the Arts, Gerald Murnane (pictured) and Christopher Koch have both received writers' emeritus awards to the maximum value of $50,000. "They are writers of such distinction and worth that with economies elsewhere we were able to give two awards," says Imre Salusinszky, the Australia Council chairman. "Both writers have made a great contribution to the imaginative life of this country that is not reflected in sales. Both are more celebrated outside Australia than inside Australia."

The awards recognise lifetime achievement by writers over 65 with an annual income of $40,000 or less. Koch was nominated by the poets Chris Wallace-Crabbe and Jamie Grant and Murnane by his publisher, Ivor Indyk. Koch, 75, the author of novels such as The Year Of Living Dangerously and The Memory Room (a current bestseller), "takes a long time to write long books so his row is not an easy one to hoe," Salusinszky says.

Murnane, 69, lives in "modest, frugal comfort" in Melbourne and this award is "a release from anxiety". Royalty payments, he says, have usually matched his gas and electricity bills. A few years ago he decided to stop writing his poetically repetitive prose but several recent awards and rediscovery by Indyk's Giramondo Publishing have encouraged a new outpouring. A 20,000-word story has grown into an 80,000-word book, Barley Patch, still in the rewriting phase, and Murnane has plans for another "20,000-worder" that might also become a book. He is equally pleased by Giramondo's reissue this month of his first book from 1974, Tamarisk Row, to be launched at Adelaide Writer's Week.

DESIGNERS MAKE THE LIST

As a judge in the Australian Publishers Association book design awards, my lips are sealed about the results. But I can announce the diverse shortlist for best designed cover of the year, which is drawn from shortlists for other award categories. On the list are the embroidered fabric cover for the Maggie Beer cookbook Maggie's Harvest and the elegant pink and grey collection of Maggie Alderson fashion columns, Gravity Sucks, both designed by Daniel New for Penguin; also the witty design by Reuben Crossman for Murdoch Books' business title Stop Bitching Start Pitching by Marty Kellard and Ian Elliot, and Christa Moffitt's stunningly stark cover for The Complete Stories by David Malouf, published by Random House. Winners will be announced at the Powerhouse Museum on May 22. See publishers.asn.au.

A NAME THAT SELLS

Readers are paying no attention to the mixed Australian reviews of Geraldine Brooks's novel People Of The Book. In the half-week after the book came out this month, it sold more than 3000 copies, according to BookScan. That is an extraordinary jump from the 350 copies of her previous novel, March, sold in a similar period in 2005. And it is even before Sydney-born Brooks arrives from the US for a publicity tour next month.

"It shows that people were waiting for the book," says Shona Martyn, the HarperCollins publishing director. "It's the same as the brand-name international authors, where people say, 'Oh, a new Geraldine Brooks.' "

Though the early rush doesn't foretell long-term sales of People Of The Book, it is bound to overtake the Pulitzer Prize-winning March, which sold 4000 copies in its best week, before Mother's Day, 2005. "It will be one of the biggest fiction books of the year," Martyn predicts. In the US, where the novel came out a month earlier to more positive reviews, it hit No. 2 on The New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list and has had six weeks on the list.

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