Orange books

The 2010 winner of the Orange prize for fiction is Barbara Kingsolver with The Lacuna. Daisy Goodwin, Chair of this year's judges, said "we chose The Lacuna because it is a book of breathtaking scale and shattering moments of poignancy". The scale is from Trotsky to McCarthy and the poignancy comes from the narrator's dealings with other people: his mother Salome, his mentor Frida Karlo, his assistant Violet Brown, as his past is explored and the present unfolds alarmingly. The book is about many things: art, politics, history, news and gossip, and the reader must work hard to fit all the pieces together. Kingsolver is exploring how we get to be who we are. In this case there is a gap, a lacuna, that is understood if you read optimistically to the very end.

The winner of the 2010 Orange award for new writers is Irene Sabatini for The boy next door. Set in Zimbabwe, this can be described as a love story with political scenery. From the first page I have found the writing is fresh and engaging and I am looking forward to reading the rest of this book.
The award for new writers always finds emerging talent and brings them to wider attention.

Last year's winner of the Orange award for new writers was Francesca Kay. I found the biographical style and the domestic descriptions in her novel An Equal stillness very real and evocative. She highlights the feelings of a talented artist struggling to mmet the demands of family responsibility. Her relationship with her husband and also with her art is all about balance. As Jennet finds her way, her husband is losing his and the reader learns more about that essential selfishness that drives the creative artist.

There is a wonderful blog devoted to the reading of Orange prizewinning writers that has some very interesting postings from readers all over the world; there are full reviews and comments and other news. It is well worth a look.