We are delighted that CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet, published in the UK by Saraband, has been shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2022. This follows hot on the heels of the novel’s longlisting for the Booker Prize and shortlisting for the Ned Kelly Award in Australia, where Text published in October 2021.
Also shortlisted for this year’s Gordon Burn Prize are: About a Son by David Whitehouse, Aftermath by Preti Taneja, Constructing a Nervous System by Margo Jefferson and Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi.
Founded in 2012, the Gordon Burn Prize covers both fiction and non-fiction, and seeks to award works that push boundaries, cross genres or otherwise challenge readers’ expectations. It remembers the Newcastle-born writer Gordon Burn, a journalist and author of 10 books including Alma Cogan and Somebody’s Husband, Somebody’s Son. Past winners include A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib, This Is Not Propaganda by Peter Pomerantsey, For the Good Times by David Keenan, The Long Drop by Denise Mina and In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile by Dan Davies.
CASE STUDY, described as ‘a novel of mind-bending brilliance’ by Hannah Kent, was first published in the UK by Saraband in October 2021, with the paperback following on 14 April 2022. Bolinda publish the audio edition. CASE STUDY has already been the recipient of numerous accolades, including being chosen as a Book of the Year in 2021 by The Spectator, The Scotsman and Waterstones and being picked as one of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s favourite books of the year too. Rights to CASE STUDY have been sold in ten further territories, with more under offer currently, with North American rights sold to Biblioasis recently – more news on this to follow shortly.
The winner of the Gordon Burn Prize 2022 will be announced at Durham Book Festival on Thursday 13 October 2022. The winner will receive a £5,000 award and a three-month retreat at Gordon Burn’s cottage in the Scottish borders.
CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet
I have decided to write down everything that happens, because I feel, I suppose, I may be putting myself in danger.
London, 1965. An unworldly young woman suspects charismatic psychotherapist Collins Braithwaite of involvement in a death in her family. Determined to find out more, she becomes a client of his under a false identity. But she soon finds herself drawn into a world in which she can no longer be certain of anything.
In CASE STUDY, Graeme Macrae Burnet presents both sides: the woman’s notes and the life of Collins Braithwaite. The result is a dazzling, page-turning and wickedly humorous meditation on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself, by one of the most inventive novelists writing today.
Praise for CASE STUDY:
‘Consistently inventive, caustically funny and surprisingly moving, this is one of the finest novels of the year.’ – Christian House, Financial Times
‘It’s a book that is enormous fun to read, a mystery and a psychological drama wrapped up in one. Buoyed by the evident pleasure Macrae Burnet takes in spinning such a tightly knit tale – the author’s note at the end is magnificent – CASE STUDY is a triumph, and ought to give Saraband another success story.’ – Alex Preston, Guardian, ‘Book of the Day’
‘Fun and funny, sly and serious, a beguiling literary game that manages to say more about the nature of the self than any number of more self-consciously solemn works.’ – David Szalay
‘Brilliant, bamboozling… In addition to CASE STUDY’s ludic pleasures, Burnet captures his characters’ voices so brilliantly that what might have been just an intellectual game feels burstingly alive and engaging.’ – Jake Kerridge, 5-star review, Sunday Telegraph
‘What’s real and what’s not is beside the point in this skilful portrait of a disturbed woman and her encounters with an experimental 1960s psychotherapist . . . Both strands quickly become compelling . . . I was hooked like a fish.’ – Leyla Sanai, The Spectator
‘This is a novel which, like Macrae Burnet’s previous ones, holds the attention, develops an insidious narrative interest, and poses questions about the nature of the self and the authenticity of identity . . . As in his other novels, Macrae Burnet writes with an admirable lucidity, at the same time being able to probe and shed light on the dark places of the mind. Writing in a prose that is spare, deadpan and yet alive, he poses questions about the nature and perception of what we choose to call reality. He is an uncommonly interesting and satisfying novelist.’ – Allan Massie, The Scotsman
About Graeme Macrae Burnet
Graeme Macrae Burnet was brought up Kilmarnock, Ayrshire and now lives in Glasgow. He has also lived in the Czech Republic, France, Portugal and London. He has appeared at festivals and events in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Russia, Estonia, Macau, Ireland, Germany and France, as well as in the UK. He has also been shortlisted for European and American literary awards.
His first novel, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADÈLE BEDEAU (Contraband, 2014), received a New Writer’s Award from the Scottish Book Trust and was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award. A second Inspector Gorski novel, THE ACCIDENT ON THE A35, was published in 2017, the year he won Author of the Year for the Sunday Herald Culture Awards.
HIS BLOODY PROJECT (Contraband, 2015) won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the LA Times Book Awards. It has been published to great acclaim around the world and film rights have been optioned by Synchronicity.
His latest novel CASE STUDY is longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize in the UK and the Australian Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction 2022.
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