Media24 Books has announced the shortlists for its 2012 Literary Awards. Celebrating literary excellence, these prizes are awarded annually to South African authors and Margie Orford's GALLOWS HILL and Michiel Heyns' LOST GROUND have both been shortlisted for the Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English literature. Finuala Dowling's HOMEMAKING FOR THE DOWN AT HEART is also shortlisted for the prize.
The winners will be announced at an award ceremony on Friday, 8 June 2012.
Margie Orford's Clare Hart series has been translated into Czech, French, Dutch, Spanish, Russian and German. Michiel Heyns's novels are published in the US, France, and Holland.
Praise for Margie Orford and GALLOWS HILL:
'Margie
Orford is the queen of South African crime thriller writers…The energy
Margie Orford creates between her characters and the tautness of her
plots is attracting new readers and publishers every month.' -- Sue
Grant-Marshall, The Weekender
'Orford plots so brilliantly that to stop reading is as harrowing as to carry on.' -- Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph
'I'm a crime thriller junkie, and GALLOWS HILL fulfilled all the fixes I needed. … This was the first time, I had read this author, and won't be the last.' -- Elaine Ash, Pretoria News
'Margie Orford's pacy dialogue and expert twist of the genre's base elements is masterful. GALLOWS HILL is the fourth book in the Clare Hart series and a great reason for any crime thriller fan to acquire the preceding titles.' -- Nicole Roughley, Fairlady Magazine
Praise for Michiel Heyns and LOST GROUND:
'Michiel Heyns is part magician, part juggler and fine linguist.' -- Jane Rosenthal, Mail & Guardian
'LOST GROUND is a superbly crafted and compelling portrayal of loss and discovery. Heyns writes with absolute honesty, exploring the human condition with deep compassion and wit. His story transcends the confines of a small-town location to expose the innate insecurities that determine all of our relationships, struck through with irony and regret. Heyns writes with such grace and dignity, he deserves our praise and unqualified envy.' -- Andrew Brown
'LOST GROUND is the novel Michiel Heyns was always going to write: one that brings together all his many talents - a highly pedigreed writing style…brilliantly witty satire, a nuanced and convincing rendering of place, people and time, a gay counter-narrative, and the type of dialogue that only a committed eavesdropper can produce. It is, in short, the best of THE CHILDREN'S DAY combined with the best of THE RELUCTANT PASSENGER, THE TYPEWRITER'S TALE and BODIES POLITIC…Without obviously "ticking boxes", Heyns knows just how to characterise contemporary South Africa…Whether you read it as a whodunit or as a portrait of the nation, LOST GROUND is utterly compelling - exquisitely written, profound, hilarious and hauntingly familiar.' -- Finuala Dowling, slipnet.co.za
'On the surface a gripping story of jealousy, lust, racial conflict and murder, LOST GROUND lays bare the struggle of a man to resist his past and its implications. A powerful tale of complicity, lost friendship and the lengths to which people go to protect themselves from truths that might destroy them.' -- Charles Lambert, author of LITTLE MONSTERS and ANY HUMAN FACE.