Sofie Laguna's second novel, "The Eye of the Sheep", earned her the coveted Miles Franklin Literary Award. Among other competitors that vied for Australia's most sought-after recognition include the likes of Sonya Hartnett, Joan London, Craig Sherborne and first-time novelist Christine Piper.
The mother of two is the fourth woman in recent memory (eleventh in the past 50 years) to snag the award, and her work -- which centered on a curious kid named Jimmy who struggles to understand the world as he endures the pangs of alcoholism and domestic violence -- had all the makings of a winner, according to the judges.
In an article in The Guardian, Richard Neville, state librarian of New South Wales and chair of the Miles Franklin judging panel said, "The Eye of the Sheep is an extraordinary novel about love and anger, and how sometimes there is little between them."
"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," Neville commented on the Miles Franklin website.
Laguna, who has already written 20 children's books and plays, as well as a screenplay inspired by her adult book "One Foot Wrong", was very emotional when she took the stage to receive the award and the $60,000 prize in the ceremony held in Melbourne.
"I am still writing whether I have to sit in the corridor while the baby sleeps or in a giant play center lit by fluorescent tubes and full of plastic play equipment, the writing just continues," she said during her speech.
"The Eye of the Sheep" is highly regarded for putting searing concerns regarding domestic violence into the spotlight, but Laguna admits that the book was rather an "unconscious" response to the public awareness of domestic violence.
"I've heard before that writers or artists, without being conscious of it - we are reflecting back to society the issues of the day. But this was unconscious, as so much of [my] work just is," the author said on The Sydney Morning Herald.
Three of the five shortlisted novels that were up for the Miles Franklin Literary Award center on family and childhood are "very much rooted in their locality." All the same, all these books, as Neville revealed to The Guardian, "really are Australian stories."