I am, of course, very sad that Karen Joy Fowler did not win the Booker. However, I am heartened to learn from the Telegraph that her book, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, has sold more than three times as many copies as all of the other finalists combined. The jury has their opinion, but the public has a rather different one.

Having said that, Richard Flanagan is a darn good writer. I know because I reviewed one of his earlier books for Emerald City. That book was Gould’s Book of Fish, and it absolutely belonged in an SF&F review magazine. You can read the review here. You’ll note that it is a bit dated, having been written before Ricky Ponting and Tansy Rayner Roberts because the world’s most famous Tasmanians, but other that that I think it holds up.