When the shortlist was announced,a couple of publishers got in touch to ask for a copy of the manuscript to read. One got back to say they would wait and see the outcome of the awards. “I wasn’t actually aware of how influential the prize was. Until it started happening really.”
Cummins should consider the case of Graeme Simsion,who won the award forThe Rosie Project – first published 10 years ago this week – which has sold several million copies. A few years after Simsion,Jane Harper won forThe Dry,the crime novel that ushered in the outback-noir genre and was turned into a successful film starring Eric Bana. Others to have won the prize include inaugural winner Carrie Tiffany,Maxine Beneba Clarke,and Christian White.
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One Divine Night was inspired by a story Cummins read inThe Sunday Age.
“That must have been about 10 years ago now. It was about this young man who was abused by his grandfather who was fairly high up in government and so forth. The story just wouldn’t leave me and finally at the beginning of lockdown my partner said ‘well,why don’t you just write a novel’.”
Cummins cut it fine,entering the award the day before the deadline. He says his story follows his character,Aaron Peters,as he becomes estranged from his family,addicted to heroin,and living on the streets all while “wanting to be something,wanting his life without the pain,without the heroin. So the story really is about that journey”.