Having published six highly awarded books, Eden-based author John Hughes is no stranger to acclaim.
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Yet recent news his novel The Dogs had been included on the longlist for the Miles Franklin Literary Award came as a "great surprise" to Hughes.
Listed alongside 11 other highly regarded authors, he said it was wonderful to be nominated and included on the longlist, following being shortlisted for his previous novel No One in 2020.
"Although I've been lucky enough to win a number of awards over the years, none of that prepared me for the Miles Franklin, it's a big deal," he said.
"With an independent publisher, it has helped introduce me to a much larger readership of literary fiction."
First presented in 1957, the award celebrates novels of the highest literary merit that tell stories about Australian life, shining a light on some of the country's most accomplished writers as they compete for the prominent prize.
The award was established by feminist and author of My Brilliant Career, Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, and the winner will receive $60,000.
Richard Neville, State Library of NSW Mitchell librarian said this year's longlist was drawn from a robust pool of entries.
"It reflects the thematic richness and the formal adventurousness of the contemporary Australian novel, as our writers respond to our times," Mr Neville said.
The Dogs is a novel that deals with four generations of an Italian-Russian-Australian family, exploring the impact family secrets can have on one's development and relationships.
"It looks at the way in which trauma is passed down through the generations, almost like it's unavoidable. People may try and keep past secrets from their children, but it's still in them and their behaviour, manages to make its way through," Hughes said.
The novel has a large historical scale to it, taking in some of the major cataclysms of the 20th Century, beginning in Russia during the revolution, on to Italy at the end of World War II, before a migration to Sydney and later set in a nursing home in Port Stephens.
The two main characters are a mother and her son (the narrator) who don't have a very happy relationship, she having told him almost nothing of her past, and suffering dementia in her final years.
"He takes advantage of that, quite ironically, as in her dementia she is no longer in control of her memories which then emerge in garbled form - and he is able to put together the life of his mother and grandmother," Hughes said.
His first book of autobiographical essays, The Idea of Home, dealt with similar themes: migration, exile, memory, forgetting - the way in which the past is passed on through story.
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With a PhD in English Literature, the author took long service leave from teaching in Sydney while writing The Dogs, prior to retiring and relocating to Eden.
"The book was percolating away in my mind, when I actually had the time it was like an explosion, the words just came.
"I had times where I would be working and would lose myself so much in the work, I would look down and have no memory of doing the writing. It's uncanny you can be so taken over by something.
"If a book is really good you can be similarly transported and can forget you are reading, being so caught up in characters."
Although some of the subject matter was confronting, Hughes said there was some humour in there as well and he was pleased to know a lot of people could relate to his writing.
"Even when family circumstances are different, a lot of similar things have gone on and aren't necessarily geographically specific."
The shortlisted finalists will be revealed on June 23 and the winner announced on July 20.
Leah Szanto
Regional journalist covering the Far South Coast of NSW.
Regional journalist covering the Far South Coast of NSW.
