Anna Funder made her name with the much-hailed and widely published nonfiction work Stasiland. Her first novel, All That I Am—already a bestseller and winner of multiple awards—has just been awarded the Miles Franklin Literary Award for 2012. Congratulations Anna!
Recommended reading:
Miles Franklin winner Anna Funder finds out it’s all about her, award coverage by Stephen Romei in the Australian.
A review of All That I Am on the ANZ LitLovers LitBlog.
A great interview with Anna Funder in Kirsten Krauth’s ‘writing mothers’ series.
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Find out more about the other shortlisted books from 2012 here.
LiteraryMinded 
Since I bought it, this book is looking at me… I tried to read it twice but never succeeded so far… maybe the third time will be the good one. Have you read it Angela?
Unfortunately not. And now I have a big pile for reviews, interviews and Melbourne Writers Festival… not sure I’ll get to it in the near future. So many books!
I know innumerable good readers who needed three gos to get into All That I Am. They persisted because of the immense hype around its publication and the sense that it ‘should’ be good. Bah. It reads like non-fiction with some cloying attempts at fictional style.
Thanks for your comment, Samantha! I know at least two people who had trouble with it, too. Whether to persevere or not depends on the reader, I guess. Have you read Stasiland? I’ve always wanted to.
Stasiland is incredible and I’m not usually a non-fiction person. Definitely read it!