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Commonwealth prize reveals regional shortlists

13.02.08

The 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize announced its regional shortlists today (13th February), with Mohsin Hamid, Hari Kunzru and début author Catherine O'Flynn all in contention for the Europe and South Asia prizes.

Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Viking) and Kunzru's My Revolutions (Hamish Hamilton) feature on the Best Book Award shortlist, together with David Davidar's The Solitude of Emperors (Weidenfeld), K R Usha's Girl and a River (Penguin), Nicholas Shakespeare's Secrets of the Sea (Harvill Secker) and Indra Sinha's Animal's People (Simon & Schuster).

On the Best First Book shortlist, O'Flynn's What Was Lost (Tindal Street Press), which recently won the Costa First Novel award, is joined by Tahmima Anam's A Golden Age (John Murray), Priya Basil's Ishq and Mushq (Black Swan), Shandana Minhas's Tunnel Vision (Roli Books), Jeremy Page's Salt (Viking) and J M Shaw's The Illumination of Merton Browne (Sceptre).

The two regional winners will be announced on 13th March, and the overall prizes--of £10.000 for the Best Book and £5,000 for the Best First Book--are awarded in May. The other regions are Africa, the Caribbean and Canada and South East Asia and the South Pacific.

 

OTHER REGIONAL SHORTLIST IN FULL:

AFRICA

Best Book
Barbara Adair's End (Jacana Media)
Ifeoma Chinwuba's Waiting for Maria (Spectrum)
Finuala Dowling's Flyleaf (Penguin SA)
Karen King-Aribisala's The Hangman's Game (Peepal Tree)
Susan Mann's Quarter Tones (Harvill Secker)
Zakes Mda's Cion (Penguin SA)

Best First Book
Sade Adeniran's Imagine This (SW Books)
Ceridwen Dovey's Blood Kin (Penguin SA)
Dayo Forster's Reading the Ceiling (Simon & Schuster)
Ken Kamoche's A Fragile Hope (Salt Publishing)
Sumayya Lee's The Story of Maha (Kwela Books)
Carel van der Merwe's No Man's Land (Umuzi)

CANADA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Best Book
Gil Adamson's The Outlander (House of Anansi)
Erna Brodber's The Rainmaker's Mistake (New Beacon Books)
Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes (HarperCollins)
Robert Hough's The Culprits (Random House Canada)
Frances Itani's Remembering the Bones (Phyllis Bruce Books)
Michael Ondaatje's Divisadero (Bloomsbury)

Best First Book
David Chariandy's Soucouyant (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Tish Cohen's Town House (HarperCollins)
Arley McNeney's Post (Thistledown Press)
Ameen Merchant's The Silent Raga (Douglas & McIntyre)
C S Richardson's The End of the Alphabet (Doubleday Canada)
Neil Smith's Bang Crunch (Knopf Canada)

SOUTH EAST ASIA AND SOUTH PACIFIC

Best Book Award
Steven Carroll's The Time We Have Taken (HarperCollins)
Sonya Hartnett's The Ghosts Child (Penguin Australia)
Sarah Hopkins's The Crimes of Billy Fish (ABC Books)
Mireille Juchau's Burning In Australia (Giramondo)
Michelle De Kretser's The Lost Dog (Australia Allen & Unwin)
Alex Miller's Landscape of Farewell (Allen & Unwin)

Best First Book Award
Steven Conte's The Zookeepers War (Australia Harper Collins)
Karen Foxlee's The Anatomy of Wings (Australia UQP)
Sara Knox's The Orphan Gunner (Giramondo)
Carol Lefevre's Nights in the Asylum (Picador)
Marcella Polain's The Edge of the World (Fremantle Press)

commonwealth writers' prize Prize

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