Siang Lu wins Miles Franklin award for Ghost Cities, ‘a genuine landmark in Australian literature'

The Guardian

6 days ago

When Siang Lu found out he'd won the Miles Franklin literary award, he had a physical reaction. 'I was in such shock that I lost all feeling in my hands and legs,' the Brisbane-based author says. 'I teared up. I lost my voice a little bit. It was the first time in my life that I've ever had to ask someone with a straight face, 'Can you just please confirm to me that I'm not dreaming?''
The feeling Lu describes is akin to the surreal nature of his experimental, prize-winning novel, Ghost Cities. Set between modern and ancient times, and inspired by the vacant megacities of China, the sprawling, ambitious novel is shot through with absurdist humour, cultural commentary and satire in what the Miles Franklin judges describe as 'at once a grand farce and a haunting meditation on diaspora', and 'a genuine landmark in Australian literature'.
Many of Ghost Cities' characters, from emperors to civilians, are devoted to telling, and preserving, stories. It's something Lu hadn't realised until a keen-eyed reader pointed it out – now, he says it's key to the novel itself and the $60,000 prize he's just won.
'I think people are responding to a combination of the humour, which I care very deeply about, but also the idea that we should venerate art, storytellers and storytelling,' he says.
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'Amongst the cast of characters in Ghost Cities … It was the storytellers that had any hope of claiming agency. I did not consciously do that or plan that, but I recognise it now as something that is true, that my mind was working towards. I hope that at some subconscious level, this is what readers and the judging panel might have responded to: the love for storytelling and literature.'
Like many of Australia's most acclaimed writers, Lu works a full-time job (in tech) and has two children, aged nine and 11. Some of Ghost Cities was written many years ago on his hour-long commute to and from the office.
'From the outside in normal, real life, it might appear that in some ways, I've de-prioritised literature in my life: I work a normal job, try to be as present as I can for my children, do what I can for the community,' he says. 'But in fact, secretly, I've put literature above everything … I'm grateful for the things that ground me, because they inform the things that I want to write.'
Ghost Cities is Lu's second novel and follows 2022's The Whitewash, a madcap, satirical oral history blending real and fictional stories of Hollywood's race problem. An online project, The Beige Index (described as 'the Bechdel test for race'), is a companion piece of sorts.
The perennially shy author says it was a 'gift' for this to be his debut in the Australian literary world, because it meant 'I could be an advocate for something that I care about very deeply, which was more and better representation – that very quickly became like armour for me. I thought, 'Let me be a good advocate for this cause, and then I don't need to talk about myself,' which is a win-win.'
This year Lu was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin alongside Brian Castro (Chinese Postman), Michelle de Kretser (Theory and Practice), Winnie Dunn (Dirt Poor Islanders), Julie Janson (Compassion) and Fiona McFarlane (Highway 13). He observes that prize shortlists have become more diverse. 'I don't think that is possible without people behind the scenes, the judges themselves, the readers who are reading critically and thinking about these questions: where are we, where are we going, and how do we get there?' he says.
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But the author also believes it is, first and foremost, about the work itself: 'I've been in judging panels and session groups … [In] the conversations about whose voices we want to champion, always, always, the first cornerstone to that is quality.'
The writing community matters a lot to Lu. He expresses it in his own idiosyncratic way through what he calls 'Silly Bookstagram', where he Photoshops fellow authors' book covers to be about himself. Lu stresses that the braggadocious nature of the posts is an exaggerated persona but he enjoys connecting with, and promoting, other writers through this tongue-in-cheek project, which has had a real-life impact.
'It started to hit me when those fellow authors actually showed up for my book launch in Sydney,' he says. 'I didn't know them other than through Instagram but it felt like a way to connect in the most 'me' way possible.'
So what's next for Australia's latest Miles Franklin winner? Lu is tight-lipped but promises one thing: 'It's gonna be weirder than Ghost Cities.'