November 23, 2008	Sunday	Ziqa'ad 24, 1429

SYDNEY, Nov 22: Australian author David Malouf has beaten Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee and Japan’s Haruki Murakami to win Australasia’s richest literary prize.

Malouf won the inaugural $68,000 Australia-Asia Literary Award for ‘The Complete Stories’.

“ ‘The Complete Stories’ is a rich feast of subtle tales which sum up the intense joys and sadness that fill even the most ordinary lives — we were all moved by this fine collection,” judging panel chair Nury Vittachi said.

Vittachi, Hong Kong-based founder of the Asia Literary Review was joined on the judging panel by Melbourne literary critic Peter Craven and Pakistani-born author Kamila Shamsie.

Announcing the winner in Perth on Friday night, West Australian Culture and Arts Minister John Day said the award acknowledged the need for a prize for the region that was commensurate with those on offer in Europe.

“Local authors have been forced to look elsewhere for the international recognition that any award-winning novelist should be able to achieve,” Day said.

The award is open to works of fiction written by authors resident in Australia or Asia, or which are set primarily in Australia or an Asian country.

Others on the list for the prize included recent Booker prize contender Michelle de Kretser, Indian-born Indra Sinha and Pakistan-born Mohsin Hamid.

—AFP