The first quarter of this century is nearly over. To prepare a list of the best novels of this century so far, Australian broadcaster ABC Radio National conducted an opinion poll. Their findings are here. It is largely representative of English-language publishing, even if the list is dominated by Australian fiction (Richard Flanagan, for one, is as good an author as anybody else working today). It does ignore the so-called Global Novel: no Orhan Pamuk, no Haruki Murakami. But there’s a list before us, and this is backed by a large-scale participation, as 287,990 readers voted in the poll.
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Readers are suckers for lists as they provide reading recommendations. But the ABC Radio National has little to offer for serious readers. The top pick is ‘Boy Swallows Universe’ (2018) by Trent Dalton – “a story of brotherhood, true love and the most unlikely of friendships”, in other w
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