This week’s ABC Radio National Top-100-adjacent trail heads down the Booker pathway. As you contemplate the 2026 Booker-Prize longlist (and imagine the judging conversations that must be happening amongst that fantasy-dinner-party panel of Mary Beard, Jarvis Cocker, Patricia Lockwood, Rebecca Liu and Raymond Antrobus), here’s work from Australia’s first two Booker-Prize-winning authors: Thomas Keneally, who won with Schindler’s Ark in 1982; and Peter Carey, who won with Oscar and Lucinda in 1988 and The True History of the Kelly Gang in 2001.
Revisit “The Inquisitors”, an extract from Keneally’s Three Cheers for the Paraclete from Meanjin Summer 1968, and Carey’s “A Windmill in the West”, published in Meanjin’s Summer edition in 1972. Three Cheers for the Paraclete won Keneally his second successive Miles Franklin award in 1968, while “A Windmill in the West” was later published in Carey’s debut book, the 1974 short story collection, The Fat Man in History.
For inspiration from further afield, you can also explore the Booker’s own list of favourite Australian winners and shortlisters from across their 57-year history as you assemble your votes for this year’s ABC Radio National Top 100 Australian Books poll. Voting will run from 31 August through to 1 October.
The Inquisitors – Thomas Keneally
A Windmill in the West – Peter Carey
…