Authors' Club Best First Novel Award won by Ferdia Lennon for Glorious Exploits
Glorious Exploits, written by Ferdia Lennon, has won the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award. Novelist Tracy Chevalier presented Lennon’s publisher with £2,500 at a reception at the National Liberal Club in London on 21st May.
Chevalier said: "Glorious Exploits is a remarkable leap of the imagination into 4th-century BC Sicily, where two young potters have the madcap idea of directing Athenian prisoners in a Euripides play. Lennon somehow manages to convince us he was there, with a distinctly Irish voice and style of storytelling. It is a funny, heartbreaking, confident debut and a glorious triumph."
The shortlist comprised:
Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon (Fig Tree)
All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles (Galley Beggar Press)
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Sceptre)
The Borrowed Hills by Scott Preston (John Murray)
Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili (Bloomsbury)
Tiananmen Square by Lai Wen (Swift Press)
Continues…
Read More
The prize is for the debut novel of a British, Irish or UK-based author, first published in the UK. There is no age limit. The winning novel is selected by a guest adjudicator from a shortlist drawn up by a panel of Authors’ Club members, chaired by editor and writer Lucy Popescu.
She said: "An inventive, bittersweet novel about the power of the imagination. Lennon skilfully weaves the Irish vernacular into his tale; his imaginative characterisation and evocative descriptions are a joy."
