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.
