The Bookseller.com

5th July 2009

Lalwani's Desmond Elliott win

27.06.08 Anna Richardson

Nikita Lalwani has won the inaugural Desmond Elliott Prize for her novel Gifted (Penguin), beating Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (Simon & Schuster) and John Walsh's Sunday at the Cross Bones (Fourth Estate). Chair of judges Penny Vincenzi, who was joined on the panel by Tatler editor Geordie Greig, and author and journalist Cristina Odone, said that Gifted was "a book of extraordinary range; it is touching, tender, funny and at the same time truly compelling".

The £10,000 prize was awarded on 26th June. It was launched last year in honour of literary agent and publisher Desmond Elliott to celebrate new fiction that is "intelligent with broad appeal, a page-turner which makes you pause for thought".

Anna Richardson Penguin Prize Home Nikita Lalwani Desmond Elliott

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