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Marina Lewycka has been shortlisted for her
debut novel |
The shortlist of six female writers competing for the 10th Orange Prize
for Fiction has been announced.
Three Britons and three Americans will vie for the £30,000 prize, with
the winner announced on 7 June in London.
Among them is Marina Lewycka, a Briton who was born in a refugee camp
in Germany after World War II.
The award is for women writing in English. Chair of judges Jenni Murray
said: "Now comes the tough job of choosing from such an inspiring group."
She added: "There's a broad range of subject matter, three American and
three British writers, new writers, established writers and a quite
astonishing array of titles."
Marina Lewycka, who now lives in Sheffield, has
been nominated for her debut novel A Short History of Tractors in
Ukrainian, a dark comedy about family feuding
.
Another British nominee, Jane Gardam, from Kent, is the only author to
have won the Whitbread Novel of the Year award twice.
She has been nominated for her 15th novel, Old Filth, about a former
international lawyer whose name stood for Failed in London Try Hong Kong.
Joolz Denby, from Bradford, has been shortlisted for her third novel,
Billie Morgan, about a 40-something woman running a jewellery shop who is
trying to forget her past as a biker chick and murderer.
The American nominees are Sheri Holman, for The Mammoth Cheese, her
third novel, which focuses on the secrets which unravel in her hometown
after the media descend on it when Manda Frank gives birth to 11 babies.
Californian writer Maile Meloy has been nominated for her first novel,
Liars and Saints, about a family haunted by a kiss.
And Lionel Shriver, an American who lives in London and New York, is
nominated for her seventh novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin.
The book is about a career woman who fears her own shortcomings may
have caused her son to murder his high-school students.
(BBC) |