Congratulations Sofie Laguna! Last night Sofie was named as the Winner of the 2015 Miles Franklin Literary Award for her second novel, The Eye of the Sheep.

The Miles Franklin is Australia’s most prestigious literary award and was established by Stella Miles Franklin, the author of My Brilliant Career. The first Miles Franklin was first awarded in 1957 and has been awarded annually to novels of the highest literary merit and presentation of Australian life ever since.

Sofie is an author, actor and playwright. Her books for young people have been named Honour Books and Notable Books in the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards and have been shortlisted in the Queensland Premier’s Awards.

Sofie’s first novel One Foot Wrong was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award. After The Eye of the Sheep was awarded the Miles Franklin Award, Richard Neville, on behalf of the judging panel provided these notes:

….the power of this finely crafted novel lies in its raw, high-energy, coruscating language which is the world of young Jimmy Flick, who sees everything. But his manic x-ray perceptions don’t correspond with the way others see his world. His older brother understands him some of the time, and his mother almost all of the time, but other people, including his violent father, just see him as difficult. Weathering successive waves of domestic violence, Jimmy navigates his way through the shoals of alcohol-abuse, illness and tragedy that swamp his parents, and ultimately reaches the possibility of equanimity. The Eye of the Sheep is an extraordinary novel about love and anger, and how sometimes there is little between them.

Congratulations Sofie!

For more information about The Eye of the Sheep please visit Allen and Unwin: https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/fiction/literary-fiction/The-Eye-of-the-Sheep-Sofie-Laguna-9781743319598

For more information about the Miles Franklin Literary Award, please visit http://www.milesfranklin.com.au/newhome