Gillian Mears' <i>Foal's Bread</i>. - Gillian Mears' Foal's Bread.

Judges of The Age book of the year have ignored the latest offerings of some of Australia’s biggest writing names in picking the shortlists for this year’s awards.
Three past winners of the Miles Franklin — Alex Miller, Frank Moorhouse and Steven Carroll — this year’s winner, Anna Funder, and Peter Carey were all snubbed by judges of the fiction category.
The fiction list includes Gillian Mears for Foal’s Bread, and novels by Steven Amsterdam, Mark Dapin and Deborah Forster.

Non-fiction judges selected a diverse list, with books about topics such as bookkeeping, salmon fishing and the fires of Black Saturday.