Set around a culture war in a nursing home, Chandran’s third novel has won Australia’s biggest literary prize – and yet, she says, she was almost too afraid to write it
Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email
Shankari Chandran’s Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, an intergenerational epic confronting Australia’s uneasy relationship with multiculturalism and postcolonial trauma, has won the 2023 Miles Franklin literary award.
Chandran, a Sydney-based lawyer of Tamil heritage, collected the prestigious $60,000 award in Sydney on Tuesday night. The judges praised Chandran’s third novel, set in an aged care facility in contemporary western Sydney and Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war, as an accomplished work of character, dialogue and action.
Sign up for our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning
About Author
More Stories
Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access ‘weaponised’
Peter Dutton defends attending Hemmes fundraiser as Cyclone Alfred approached Queensland
Mark Carney to be next Canada PM after winning Liberal leadership race