ACT Book of the Year
Shortlist 2015
 | Mark Henshaw The Snow Kimono Text Publishing |
|
PANEL COMMENT
The Snow Kimono is a polished work of thoughtful consideration, accomplished, intriguing and well-resolved. It entices the reader with elegant mystery.
SYNOPSIS
Paris: 1989. Recently retired Inspector of Police Auguste Jovert receives a letter from a woman who claims to be his daughter. Two days later, a stranger comes knocking on his door. Set in Paris and Japan, The Snow Kimono tells the stories of Inspector Jovert, former Professor of Law Tadashi Omura, and his one-time friend the writer Katsuo Ikeda. All three men have lied to themselves, and to each other. And these lies are about to catch up with them.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Henshaw’s first novel, Out of the Line of Fire (1988), won the FAW Barbara Ramsden Award and the NBC New Writers Award. It was one of the biggest selling Australian literary novels of the decade. In 1989, Mark was awarded a Commonwealth Literary Fellowship and in 1994, he won the ACT Literary Award. For many years Mark was a curator at the National Gallery of Australia and has recently returned to writing fiction full-time. The Snow Kimono was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and was the winner of the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction.
 | Jono Lineen Into the Heart of the Himalayas Melbourne University Press |
|
PANEL COMMENT
Into the Heart of the Himalayas is an honest, heartfelt record of a personal journey; a poignant exploration of travel, grief and mortality.
SYNOPSIS
When Jono Lineen's brother died in tragic circumstances, he gave up a comfortable life, moved to the Himalayas and over eight years immersed himself in the cultures of the world's highest mountains.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jono Lineen is a writer, curator and public speaker whose passion for landscape and humankind's connection to it inspires his writing. He worked for years as a project manager for Médecins Sans Frontières in war and disaster zones around the world. Currently he is a curator at the National Museum of Australia. He is the author of River Trilogy: Travels Down Three of the World's Greatest Rivers.
 | Omar Musa Here Come the Dogs Penguin Books |
|
PANEL COMMENT
Here Come the Dogs combines striking images with memorable moments of rhythm. The unsentimental depiction of characters provides depth and honesty to the narrative.
SYNOPSIS
In small town suburbia, three young men are ready to make their mark. Solomon is all charisma, authority and charm, down for the moment but surely not out. His half-brother, Jimmy, bounces along in his wake, underestimated, waiting for his chance to announce himself. Aleks, their childhood friend, loves his mates, his family and his homeland, and would do anything for them. The question is, does he know where to draw the line? Solomon, Jimmy and Aleks: way out on the fringe of Australia, looking for a way in. Hip hop and graffiti give them a voice.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Omar Musa is a Malaysian-Australian rapper and poet from Queanbeyan. A former winner of the Australian Poetry Slam and Indian Ocean Poetry Slam, he has performed extensively around the country and internationally. Here Come the Dogs was long listed for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and he was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Young Novelists of the Year in 2015.
 | Sam Vincent Blood and Guts: Dispatches from the Whale Wars Black Inc. |
|
PANEL COMMENT
Blood and Guts: Dispatches from the Whale Wars is first person journalism at its best. Incisive and entertaining, it brings a personal perspective to a global issue.
SYNOPSIS
‘In Blood and Guts, Sam Vincent plunges into the whale wars. Vincent sets sail with Sea Shepherd, led by the charismatic and abrasive Paul Watson. He attends the recent case at the International Court of Justice, which finds Japan's 'scientific' whaling in the southern Ocean to be unlawful. And he travels to Japan to investigate why its government doggedly continues to bankroll the unprofitable hunt.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sam Vincent is a freelance travel writer and investigative journalist. He is a regular contributor to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age and has a degree in international relations from the Australian National University. He has been published in the Monthly and the Griffith Review. When not travelling, he works as a researcher and editor at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government.