He is best known as a comedian, but now Anh Do has cemented his place in Australia’s literary scene, taking out the top prize at the Australian Book Industry Awards.
Do’s novel The Happiest Refugee was named book of the year at Monday night’s award ceremony in Melbourne. The book explores his family’s journey to Australia and the difficulties they faced in their new life after fleeing war-torn Vietnam in 1980.
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Though Do’s family did face some hardship as they adjusted to life in Australia, he says there is less empathy for asylum seekers today, and that he has sympathy for them.
Do was very grateful and seemed genuinely shocked that his book had been so well received. The now acclaimed author never dreamed of such success when he was struggling with reading and writing as a child.
“It’s a real shock… I thanked my mum in the acceptance speech because when I was a kid I had trouble reading and writing,” he told the ABC Radio’s AM program.
“Mum helped me turn that weakness around and I got to love books and to win the Australian Book of the Year is indescribable.”
Memoirs dominated the shortlist for Book of the Year. Nominated alongside Do’s tome was John Howard’s Lazarus Rising, Paul Kelly’s How to Make Gravy, and Benjamin Law’s The Family Law. Fiction novels I Came to Say Goodbye by Caroline Overington, and Chris Womersley’s debut Bereft were also shortlisted.
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The book awards are chosen by an academy of booksellers and publishers, who also gave Do the prize for newcomer of the year and announced The Happiest Refugee joint winner for Biography of the Year, shared with musician Paul Kelly and his memoir How to Make Gravy.
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