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News & Reviews
WORD:
Rose Tremain wins 2008 Orange Prize for Fiction
Edited Press Release
British author Rose Tremain
won
the thirteenth Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction with her tenth novel
"The Road Home" (Chatto & Windus), the prize committee announced
today. Tremain was presented with the 30,000- pound prize and the
'Bessie', a limited edition bronze figurine, at an awards ceremony at
the Royal Festival Hall at Southbank Centre, London, hosted by Orange
Broadband Prize for Fiction co-founder Kate
Mosse.
"The judges felt
that this was a powerfully imagined story and a wonderful feat of
emotional empathy told with great warmth and humour," said chair of
judges Kirsty Lang, who was
also the awards presenter, in a press release.
The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction was set up in 1996 to celebrate
and promote fiction written by women throughout the world to the widest
range of readers possible. The Orange Prize is awarded to the best
novel of the year written in English by a woman.
"Women's fiction has gone from strength to strength - we are delighted
there is so much support from the public and the media for such a
powerful literature platform," said Hattie
Magee, head of partnerships for Orange. "This year's Orange
Broadband Prize for Fiction has seen another exceptional shortlist, but
in the end, there can be only one winner - many congratulations to Rose
Tremain."
Rose Tremain writes novels, short stories and screenplays. She lives in
Norfolk and London with the biographer Richard
Holmes. Her books have been translated into numerous languages
and have won many prizes, including the Whitbread Novel Award, the
James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Prix Femina Etranger, the Dylan
Thomas Prize, the Angel Literary Awards and the Sunday Express Book of
the Year.
Tremain's novel, "The Colour," was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in
2004. Last month, The Road Home won Best Fiction category at the second
annual Good Housekeeping Book Awards and three of her novels are
currently in development as films.
The Road Home is a story about Lev, an immigrant on his way from
Eastern Europe to Britain seeking work who is a tiny part of a vast
diaspora that is changing British society. Lev has no job, little money
and few words of English. He has only his memories, his hopes and a
certain alarming skill with the preparation of food. Behind him loom
the figures of his dead wife, his beloved daughter and his outrageous
friend Rudy who - dreaming of the wealthy West - lives largely for his
battered Chevrolet.
In front of Lev lies the deep strangeness of the British: their hostile
streets, clannish pubs, lonely flats and their obsession with
celebrity. London holds out the alluring possibilities of friendship,
sex, money and a new career; but, more than this, of human
understanding, a sense of belonging.
Previous winners of the Orange Prize are Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun (2007), joe blow Zadie Smith
for On Beauty (2006), Lionel Shriver
for We Need to Talk About Kevin (2005), Andrea Levy for Small Island (2004),
Valerie Martin for
Property (2003), Ann Patchett
for Bel Canto (2002) and Kate
Grenville for The Idea of Perfection (2001), among others.
Also, Joanna Kavenna won the
the 2008 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers for her novel
Inglorious (Faber and Faber). The award recognizes authors for their
emerging talent and the evidence of future potential. Kavenna earned a
10,000 pound bursary for her win.
Check out the Orange Prize
website for more information about the award.
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