The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction: Winner and Shortlist 2008

Of the 96 entries for this year's prize, five stood out. The judges would like to have included The Fern Tattoo by David Brooks and Landscape of Farewell by Alex Miller in the shortlist below. It was difficult to narrow the field as all five are finely crafted novels with real literary merit. The judges were also astonished at the sophistication of many first-time novelists. Every year the crop of new writers is more competent and confident.

Judges: Lyn Gallacher (Convenor), Joel Becker and Peter Mews

Winner

The 2008 winner of the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction is:

• The Spare Room
  by Helen Garner (Text Publishing)

Shortlist

	Diary Of A Bad Year J.M. Coetzee (Text Publishing) Coetzee’s Diary Of A Bad Year is a compelling work of contemporary fiction. Its mild-mannered appearance belies the fact that it's operating on the cutting edge of literature. The novel is comprised of three narrative strands presented contemporaneously, in parallel strips on the page, and achieves a dramatic innovation of form. Part of the novel’s brilliance can be measured by the ease with which it is read, despite the complex intertwinings of narrative. At the centre of the book is an ageing writer, much like Coetzee himself, whose lofty concerns of Politics and Art are effectively undermined by the metaphysical passion he develops for his Filipina secretary. It's also a meditation on the nature of storytelling - a book that is, in the words of its main character, Senor C, 'a response to the present in which I find myself.'
	The Lost Dog Michelle de Kretser (Allen & Unwin) There are a lot of different kinds of lost and this book includes a number of them. Michelle de Kretser's artful blend of the familiar and the strange means that even when you're found you still don't know where you are or why. As she points out, 'experience is unlimited and never ends'. Each of the characters is beautifully drawn, there's even a goldfish named Fluffy. The search is for the inner workings of the creative process and, of course, a dog. This book pays tribute to Henry James in both style and content. It's also a joy to read.
	The Spare Room - WINNER Helen Garner (Text Publishing) When Nicola arrives in Melbourne to have a course of treatment for cancer at an alternative clinic, Helen puts her up in the spare room. As it becomes apparent how advanced the cancer is, and how dubious the treatment, Helen's role as friend becomes complex and uncomfortable. As well as a friend she becomes carer and advocate. Written without artifice, Garner’s deceptively spare text (‘...if I did not get Nicola out of my house tomorrow I would slide into a lime-pit of rage that would scorch the flesh off me...’) examines the importance of truth in friendship, however unpalatable that truth might be. The Spare Room is also an honest appraisal of how, in a time of crisis, power dynamics within a relationship can change.