ENG 12 - Extension 2 : Award Winning Writers

Helen Garner's gritty, lyrical first novel divided the critics on its publication in 1977. Today, Monkey Grip is regarded as a masterpiece. It shines a light on a time and a place and a way of living never before presented in Australian literature.

In spare, unpretentious prose, Grenville charts the brutal truth that violence breeds violence. An outstanding study of cultures in collision as colonisers claim Aboriginal land in the Hawksbury.

Tim Winton writes 17 overlapping stories of second thoughts and mid-life regret set in the brooding small-town world of coastal Western Australia. These stories examine the darkness and frailty of ordinary people and celebrate the moments when the light shines through.

The Dunbar boys bring each other up in a house run by their own rules. A family of ramshackle tragedy - their mother is dead, their father has fled - they love and fight, and learn to reckon with the adult world.