Reader Zone: Reviews and Award Winners
Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel
Hilary Mantel was last night (Tuesday 6 October) named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for Wolf Hall, published by Fourth Estate. Wolf Hall has been the bookies' favourite since the longlist was announced in July 2009. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel was picked from a shortlist of six titles. A.S. Byatt, J.M. Coetzee, Adam Foulds, Simon Mawer and Sarah Waters were all shortlisted for this year's prize.
Wolf Hall is set in the 1520s and tells the story of Thomas Cromwell's rise to prominence in the Tudor court. Hilary Mantel has been praised by critics for writing ‘a rich, absorbingly readable historical novel; she has made a significant shift in the way any of her readers interested in English history will henceforward think about Thomas Cromwell.' James Naughtie, comments ‘Hilary Mantel has given us a thoroughly modern novel set in the 16th century. Wolf Hall has a vast narrative sweep that gleams on every page with luminous and mesmerising detail. ‘It probes the mysteries of power by examining and describing the meticulous dealings in Henry VIII's court, revealing in thrilling prose how politics and history is made by men and women. ‘In the words of Mantel's Thomas Cromwell, whose story this is, "the fate of peoples is made like this, two men in small rooms. Forget the coronations, the conclaves of cardinals, the pomp and processions. This is how the world changes." '
This is the first time the publisher Fourth Estate has had a Man Booker Prize winner. They have previously published three shortlisted books - Nicola Barker's Darkmans (2007) and Carol Shields' novels Unless (2002) and The Stone Diaries (1993).
Hilary Mantel spent five years writing Wolf Hall and she is currently working on a sequel.
James Naughtie, Chair of the judges, made the announcement, which was broadcast by the BBC from the awards dinner at London's Guildhall. Peter Clarke, Chief Executive of Man Group plc, presented Hilary Mantel with a cheque for £50,000. Over and above her prize of £50,000, Hilary Mantel may expect a huge increase in sales and recognition worldwide. Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, receives £2,500 and a designer-bound edition of their book. This year, shortlisted authors will also receive a year's membership to The Groucho Club in London.
The judging panel for the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction was: broadcaster and author James Naughtie (Chair); Lucasta Miller, biographer and critic; Michael Prodger, Literary Editor of The Sunday Telegraph; Professor John Mullan, academic and author and Sue Perkins, comedian and broadcaster.
Man Booker Prize Shortlisted Authors
The Childrens Book by A.S Byatt
The judges say: "What is so extraordinary about this book is the way it doesn't read like a book that's been researched… it's the accumulation of a lifetime's reading. The depth of knowledge in it is extraordinary." (Lucasta Miller)
Summertime by J.M Coetzee
The judges say: "What is most remarkable about this book is the unbelievably self-flagellatory picture that Coetzee paints of himself… it's very painful to read in many places." (Michael Prodger)
The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds
The judges say: "It is a book that blossomed through re-reading… it's a very poignant study of insanity… and it's got a great recipe for hedgehogs." (Sue Perkins)
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The judges say: "Absolutely gripping, a huge bold novel with a fantastic historical sweep - you can hear the rustle of Wolsey's gown in some darkened room at Westminster." (James Naughtie)
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
The judges say: "A hypnotic read - a sweeping confidence and scope. Mawer is an author on top of his form. Rather like the glass room which is the essence of the book... the book itself is beautifully proportioned." (James Naughtie)
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
The judges say: "It's a kind of mystery story, or a kind of ghost story, but it also blends that with an extraordinarily attentive social realism. When I was reading this there were long stretches when I forget that I was doing the Man Booker, I was so absorbed in it." (John Mullan)
Man gone down by Michael Thomas wins the 2009 IMPAC Award
“We never know his name. But the African-American protagonist of Michael Thomas’ masterful debut, Man Gone Down, will stay with readers for a long time. He lingers because this extraordinary novel comes to us from a writer of enthralling voice and startling insight. Tuned urgently to the way we live now, the winner of the International Dublin IMPAC Prize 2009 is a novel brilliant in its scope and energy, and deeply moving in its human warmth.”
Uniquely, the IMPAC DUBLIN receives its nominations from public libraries around the globe. Man Gone Down was nominated by The National Library Service of Barbados, Bridgetown, which described it as “A vibrant, well written first novel, an exploration of identity, inter-racial relationships and societal values through the eye of a black male.”
Man Gone Down - Michael Thomas
A beautifully written, insightful, and devastating first novel, Man Gone Down is about a young black father of three in a biracial marriage trying to claim a piece of the American Dream he has bargained on since youth. On the eve of the unnamed narrator's thirty-fifth birthday, he finds himself broke, estranged from his white Boston Brahmin wife and three children, and living in the bedroom of a friend's six-year-old child. He has four days to come up with the money to keep his family afloat, four days to try to make some sense of his life.
Robinson's "Home" wins the Orange Prize for Fiction
Marilynne Robinson has won the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel Home. Fi Glover, chair of judges, called Home, ‘a kind, wise, enriching novel, exquisitely crafted. We were unanimously agreed – it is a profound work of art.’ She continued to state that 'This year's Orange Prize winner has a luminous quality to it that has drawn all of the judges to a unanimous decision. The profound nature of the writing stood out, as has the ability of writer to draw the reader into a world of hope expectation, misunderstanding, love and kindness.' The other judges were Sarah Churchwell, Kira Cochrane, Martha Lane Fox and Bidisha. This is the fourteenth year of the Orange Prize, which was established in 1996 to ‘celebrate and promote’ fiction written by women.
'Robinson makes us understand home isn’t just a place - it’s something we carry with us.'
Home - Robinson, Marilynne
Hundreds of thousands of readers were enthralled and delighted by the luminous, tender voice of John Ames in Gilead, Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Now comes HOME, a deeply affecting novel that takes place in the same period and same Iowa town of Gilead. This is Jack's story. Jack ? prodigal son of the Boughton family, godson and namesake of John Ames, gone twenty years ? has come home looking for refuge and to try to make peace with a past littered with trouble and pain. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold down a job, Jack is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father, though he remains Boughton's most beloved child. His sister Glory has also returned to Gilead, fleeing her own mistakes, to care for their dying father. Brilliant, loveable, wayward, Jack forges an intense new bond with Glory and engages painfully with his father and his father's old friend John Ames.
Costa Award for Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture
Set in Sligo, The Secret Scripture tells the story of Roseanne McNulty in captivating prose. The Guardian’s Antonia Fraser described it as “By far the best novel I read this year.” Chairman of the Costa Award judges Matthew Parris described the character of Roseanne as: "one of the great narrative voices in contemporary fiction ... a lot of us thought that it was in its way a poem. Her voice is poetry."
Following his award Sebastian Barry wrote the My Week column in The Sunday Times on 1st February 2009. Barry writes “My book The Secret Scripture is very much set in his Sligo and, by coincidence, my mother’s Sligo. Indeed, my mother’s ashes are strewn at the top of Knocknarea. I cast them there myself in 2007, alone in a thin, inching wind. I washed her urn out at the tide’s edge in Strandhill, so the every speck of her would be in Sligo.” The Mother of whom he speaks, Actress Joan O’Hara, was known to many from her role as Eunice Phelan in RTE’s “Fair City”.
Sligo County Libraries currently have 13 copies of this "must read" novel available in all our branches. It has proven to be extremely popular amongst our readers being issued 87 times to date. If you would like to borrow this item but find that its currently unavailable please do not hesitate to contact any staff member to assist you putting a "hold" on the item.
A look inside;
Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne McNulty faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr Greene, and their relationship intensifies and complicates. Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges is at once shocking and deeply beautiful. Refracted through the haze of memory and retelling, Roseanne's story becomes an alternative, secret history of Ireland's changing character and the story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment and ignorance, and yet marked still by love and passion and hope.
Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award 2009
Sligo born author Alan McMonagle is one of four Irish authors whose work has been selected for the 2009 long-list. Alan’s publication Liar Liar, published by Word on the Street, was launched in Sligo Central Library on 8th January 2009. Pictured above are Author Alan McMonagle (left) and Sligo Library "Writer-in-Residence" Niall Williams (right) browsing the book during the launch. Liar Liar is Alan’s first published collection of short stories and copies are available in all branches of Sligo County Libraries.
The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Festival takes place annually in Cork. This year’s winner will be announced at the closing ceremony of the Festival on Sunday 20th September 2009. The short-list will be announced in mid-July. For further information on the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award see www.munsterlit.ie/
