Steven CARROLL wins the 2008 Miles Franklin Literary Award

STEVEN CARROLL, 58, the author of The Art of the Engine Driver (2001) and The Gift of Speed (2004), has won the 2008 Miles Franklin Literary Award for his sixth novel, The Time We Have Taken (2007), it was announced on June 19, 2008, at the State Library of New South Wales. The first two novels were shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, but did not win. The Time We Have Taken is the third novel in a trilogy about a working-class suburban Melbourne family and their dreams and aspirations between 1950 and 1970. Melbourne resident Carroll said he didn’t have to leave Melbourne to be able to write about the place. The novel also recently won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize for best book in Southeast Asia and South Pacific.