A powerful novel about a woman and her child kept captive by a man in his basement for five years will become required reading for first-year University of Canberra students.
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Based on the Fritzl abduction case in Austria, Room was written by Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue and won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 2011.
Deputy vice-chancellor of education Nick Klomp, who came up with the concept of requiring all first-year students and staff to read a ''university novel'', said this year's choice - deliberated by a panel including ABC film reviewer Margaret Pomeranz - would inspire intense debate and conversation on campus.
Told from the five-year-old son's perspective, it considers issues of isolation, maternal devotion and childhood adaptation. Room is the second University of Canberra book; last year's was Jasper Jones by Australian author Craig Silvey.
Room also raised the more academic themes of the subjugation of women in society, childhood development, early education, personal freedom and ethics, Professor Klomp said.
''Our first book was hugely successful and this year we are planning even more activities around the book of the year.''
These include public readings and video link-ups and discussions with Ms Donoghue, who lives in Canada.
She said she had no idea her book was even in the running for UC book of the year, ''which is a good thing; publishers should never tell writers that their books are in the running for anything, as it only makes them tense and distracts them from the daily job of writing!''
UC has ordered up to 5000 copies of the novel.
''Having a single book responded to by so many different people is a great idea, much like the city-wide book choices that several cities make here in Canada; in a world of infinite consumer options, sometimes the best discussions happen when we're all talking about the same thing, for once,'' she said.
''For me, it's not just a great sales boost but a thrill to know that so many students will be discussing my work, on the other side of the world. As an academic-gone-wrong - meaning that I did a PhD but became a novelist rather than a professor - I'm particularly gratified when my writing gets studied in that context.''
UC spent about $50,000 providing copies of Jasper Jones to students and staff last year and said the response had cemented the idea of choosing a book each year to promote personal and academic discussion.
The idea is not new - almost 300 universities around the world promote a university novel. But UC is also integrating its book of the year into first-year courses.
The shortlist of five novels was drawn from books that won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the past three years. Professor Klomp said that those who began Room would ''not be able to put it down''.
