Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Women's prize for fiction reveals 'staggeringly strong' shortlist

Renamed Orange prize finalists led by Hilary Mantel, Zadie Smith and Barbara Kingsolver 

    Hilary Mantel, Zadie Smith and Barbara Kingsolver          
Hilary Mantel, Zadie Smith and Barbara Kingsolver. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Rex/Sarah Lee
 
One pundit called it a "staggeringly strong" shortlist – and who would argue given that the contenders for the 2013 Women's prize for fiction include two former winners, Zadie Smith and Barbara Kingsolver, and Hilary Mantel, who could become the first writer to bag all three of the UK's top literary awards.

Mantel is the only novelist to win the Man Booker and Costa book prizes in the same year for Bring Up the Bodies, the second in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Completing the shortlist for the award, formerly known as the Orange prize, are books by Kate Atkinson, AM Homes and Maria Semple.
This year's chair of judges, the actor Miranda Richardson, called it an "incredibly strong, thrilling and diverse" shortlist; one which took about two hours for the panel to agree on. "It shook down fairly rapidly because the stories communicate and sustain all the way through, you can't argue with the quality."

Each of the six books were stories of significance and potential future classics, said Richardson.
There are some who say that Mantel has won enough, but that was not an issue for the judges, said Richardson. Nor was the recent furore over a wildly misinterpreted lecture she gave which explored the media portrayal of the Duchess of Cambridge.

"Bring up the Bodies is a wonderful book and it deserves its place, you can't ignore something which is of such great quality," said Richardson. "We have, particularly in the UK, this tall poppy syndrome – success is not well thought of, the inference is that you're trying to set yourself above others when it's nothing to do with that. It is outside opinion that has put you there and then you're not allowed to enjoy the fruits of your labour, that's what I feel is very wrong in this country.
"This is a very celebratory award and it makes me feel good that she has come through and we can genuinely say, 'What a book.'"

Many people thought Smith should have been a Man Booker contender last year so there will be pleasure at seeing NW, her moving and gripping story of city life set in north-west London, in the mix. Smith won the Orange prize with On Beauty in 2006 and could become the first double winner, as could the American novelist Kingsolver, who won in 2010, shortlisted for her eighth novel Flight Behaviour.

Two other American writers are on the list, for very funny novels. Homes, who was a writer and producer on The L Word, is shortlisted for May We Be Forgiven, which chronicles the deranged and life-changing family events encountered by a college Nixon scholar. And Semple, a writer on TV shows including Ellen and Arrested Development, is on the list for Where'd You Go, Bernadette, which uses emails, letters and official documents to explore the world of Bernadette Fox, once revered as the most brilliant architect of her generation but now a stay-at-home mum married to a workaholic Microsoft executive.

The sixth novel is Atkinson's Life After Life, in which the narrative begins over and over again as it analyses life's what-ifs.

Early reaction has acclaimed the list as particularly strong. Jonathan Ruppin, web editor for Foyles, said of the finalists: "Last year's shortlist was possibly the strongest in the prize's history, so this year's had a lot to live up to, but I think the judges have come up with a staggeringly strong shortlist."
Ruppin tipped Homes as winner. "She's the perfect example of a female author who should be acclaimed as one of the great contemporary American novelists, alongside authors like Richard Ford, Cormac McCarthy and Don DeLillo. May We Be Forgiven is poignant, blackly humorous and a groundbreaking portrait of an America turning to nostalgia, wondering if its best years are now behind it."

He was joined by Jon Howells of Waterstones, who said: "I will be placing a bet on AM Homes's novel May We Be Forgiven, her best book to date and so far removed from Bring Up the Bodies that it is impossible to compare – and therefore in a good position to take the prize."
The award – created after frustration at an all-male Booker shortlist in 1991 – had been known as the Orange since it was first awarded, to Helen Dunmore, in 1996. Other winners have included Linda Grant, Ann Patchett, Andrea Levy and Marilynne Robinson. When Orange pulled out last year a number of people, including Cherie Blair and Joanna Trollope, stepped in with personal donations to sustain the prize while a new sponsor is found.

The list has been whittled down from 140 submissions and the overall winner will be announced at the Royal Festival Hall on 5 June.
By then, organisers say, a new sponsor for 2014 prize will have been announced.

The shortlist

Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel

Flight Behaviour, by Barbara Kingsolver

Where'd You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple

Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson

May We Be Forgiven, by A M Homes

NW, by Zadie Smith

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