GHOST LIGHT and THE MANGO ORCHARD are Norfolk’s Summer Reads 2011!

GHOST LIGHT by Joseph O'Connor and THE MANGO ORCHARD by Robin Bayley have been chosen, along with four other titles, for Norfolk's 3-month reading programme Summer Reads 2011. The programme aims to encourage reading across Norfolk and to create reading communities that will allow readers to experience much more from a book than they normally would. Reader's events will take place throughout the summer including readings and events with the authors themselves. For more information on Summer Reads 2011, please click here.

GHOST LIGHT'S 'One City One Book' celebration in Dublin took place in April with great success, sending the novel back to no 1 in the paperback bestseller charts. GHOST LIGHT is shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. GHOST LIGHT is published by Harvill Secker and Vintage in the UK and Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the US. It has also been sold to Record (Brazil), VL Publishers (Bulgaria), Fraktura (Croatia), Phebus (France), Fischer (Germany), Ambo|Anthos (Holland), Guanda (Italy), Zvaigzne (Latvia), Dom Quixote (Portugal), Salamandra (Spain) and Norstedts (Sweden).

THE MANGO ORCHARD is published by Arrow in paperback and rights have been sold to Guerra & Paz in Portugal and Editura Allfa in Romania.

Praise for GHOST LIGHT:

'A brilliant novel.' -- Joseph O'Neill, author of NETHERLAND

'O'Connor's writing is compellingly beautiful and Molly is marvellously drawn.  A captivating read.' -- Jane Housham, The Guardian

Praise for THE MANGO ORCHARD:

'THE MANGO ORCHARD...is a pure pleasure...It artfully weaves the account of Bayley's journey with Arthur's, and the narrative builds to a revelation that will leave only the most obdurate reader unmoved.' -- The Independent on Sunday
 
'This is a fine romance, in every sense of the word.' -- The Times

GHOST LIGHT shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize!

Joseph O'Connor's acclaimed novel GHOST LIGHT has been shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. 

The winner of the Walter Scott Prize, sponsored by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, will receive £25,000 and the awards ceremony will take place on June 18 as part of the Borders Book Festival at Melrose. GHOST LIGHT is shortlisted alongside Andrea Levy's THE LONG SONG and C by Tom McCarthy. Click here for more information on the award. GHOST LIGHT has also enjoyed tremendous success at no 1 in the Irish paperback charts. 

GHOST LIGHT is published by Harvill Secker and Vintage in the UK and Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the US. It has also been sold to Record (Brazil), VL Publishers (Bulgaria), Fraktura (Croatia), Phebus (France), Fischer (Germany), Ambo|Anthos (Holland), Guanda (Italy), Zvaigzne (Latvia), Dom Quixote (Portugal), Salamandra (Spain) and Norstedts (Sweden).

Praise for Joseph O'Connor:

'As I read GHOST LIGHT, I found myself going more and more slowly, because I didn't want to miss a single sentence. I found myself calling friends and reading passages aloud to them over the phone. This is a rare experience indeed. It is a rare and wonderful book.' -- Michael Cunningham, author of THE HOURS

'Joseph O'Connor's GHOST LIGHT is absolutely brilliant - a beautifully written love story.' -- Roddy Doyle, The Guardian, Books of the Year 2010

Remarkable, radiant and captivating novel…On top of the biographical information concerning these two, Synge and his Molly, Joseph O'Connor has imposed a fictional overlay, and makes a vivid performance of it … O'Connor's novel carries all the pungency and resonance of a particular era of the past.'-- The Independent

Double chart success for O'Flanagan and O’Connor continues

STAND BY ME by Sheila O'Flanagan climbs to no 3 on the paperback bestseller list in the UK and is also on no 2 in Ireland. STAND BY ME is published by Headline, and Sheila's next title, ALL FOR YOU is due to be published in July this year. She was the recipient of the prestigious Irish Tatler Literary Woman of the Year award in 2003 and more than 3 million copies of her novels are in print. Please click here to view her website.

Joseph O'Connor's GHOST LIGHT, promoted as Dublin's 'One City, One Book' continues at no 1 on the paperback charts in Ireland.
 
Praise for STAND BY ME:
 
'Fast-paced, warm story' -- Image magazine
 
'Romantic and charming, this is a real must-read.' -- Closer magazine
 
'A story that delivers on so many levels and which will never stop surprising you.' -- The Northern Echo

 GHOST LIGHT has also been shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. The winner will be announced on June 18 at the Borders Book Festival and will receive £25,000.
 
GHOST LIGHT is published by Harvill Secker and Vintage in the UK and Farrar, Straus & Giroux in the US. It has also been sold to Record (Brazil), VL Publishers (Bulgaria), Fraktura (Croatia), Phebus (France), Fischer (Germany), Ambo|Anthos (Holland), Guanda (Italy), Zvaigzne (Latvia), Dom Quixote (Portugal), Salamandra (Spain) and Norstedts (Sweden).
 
Please click here to view his website.

Praise for GHOST LIGHT:
 
'As I read GHOST LIGHT, I found myself going more and more slowly, because I didn't want to miss a single sentence. I found myself calling friends and reading passages aloud to them over the phone. This is a rare experience indeed. It is a rare and wonderful book.' -- Michael Cunningham, author of THE HOURS
 
'A brilliant novel.' -- Joseph O'Neill, author of NETHERLAND
 
'I can't think of any book I've read recently which has so enthralled me and worked at every single level. GHOST LIGHT is a wonder.' -- Peter Carey, twice winner of the Booker Prize and on Sky Books Programme, Sky TV

Vladislavic & Goldblatt shine at Sony World Photographic Awards

Ivan Vladislavic and David Goldblatt's collaborative project, TJ & DOUBLE NEGATIVE won the prestigious Kraszna-Krausz Award for Best Photographic Book at the Sony World Photography Awards at the Odeon Leicester Square on Wednesday, 27 April 2011 - auspiciously, also South African's Freedom Day, the annual anniversary celebration of the country's first democratic elections.

The beautiful collectors' edition was designed by Cyn van Houten and published by Roberto Koch of Contrasto in Rome, with Frederik de Jager of Umuzi publishing the South African edition. As he accepted his prize, Ivan Vladislavic said that though this particular five-year project was complete, David Goldblatt continued to inspire him, both in his life and his work.

In this unique collaboration between two giants of the South African cultural scene, a special edition volume of David Goldblatt's  TJ - images of Johannesburg shot over forty years -  is accompanied by Ivan Vladislaviċ's novel DOUBLE NEGATIVE, detailing the fragmented experiences of living in that city.  Together the two works create a dialogue between word and image, balancing both Goldblatt's rigorous research and Vladislavic's narrative fiction. The resulting project describes a difficult metropolis scarred by the history of apartheid, symbolic of contemporary South Africa.

Judges Mary McCartney (Chair), David Campany and Yuka Yamaji comment:
"Goldblatt and Vladislaviċ's ambitious project explores the relationship between text and image. A highly effective pairing of fiction and photography, this innovative collaboration redefines the possibilities for writing on and about photography."

A new award for Outstanding Contribution to Publishing was presented to German publisher Gerhard Steidl by last year's Best Photography Book Award winner, Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky and the World Photographic Organisation also awarded American photographer Bruce Davidson an award for Outstanding Contribution to Photography. An exhibition of highly recommended books from each award, curated by the judging panels, is on display at Somerset House for the duration of the World Photography Festival and Exhibition from 26 April - 22 May.

Ivan Vladislavić's DOUBLE NEGATIVE is published as a standalone novel in South Africa by Umuzi, and is shortlisted for the University of Johannesburg Award. In DOUBLE NEGATIVE apartheid-era university drop-out Neville Lister is in danger, his father thinks, of 'falling in with the wrong crowd' and so is sent to eminent photographer Saul Auerbach -
'a man of strong convictions, but who has learned to direct them' - to gain some sense of perspective and direction. And so begins a delicate, funny and beautifully written exploration of the art of depiction, of the haunting power of photographs - those 'odd little memorials that owe so much to chance and intuition'. In three sections - 'Available Light', 'Dead Letters', and 'Small Talk' - this spare yet memorable novel tracks the changing city of Johannesburg and Neville's path to career success - though that first day and what they saw, and what Saul Auerbach photographed then, are things he will never forget. DOUBLE NEGATIVE is a brilliant meditation on our ways of seeing and recording, on how and what we remember, and the art of being lost.

Praise for Ivan Vladislavić

'One of the most imaginative minds at work in South African literature today.' -- André Brink

'Vladislavić is without doubt the most significant writer in South Africa today.' -- Focus on Africa

'Vladislavić is a rare, brilliant writer.' -- Sunday Times (SA)

Duncan McLaren shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Blogs 2011

Duncan McLaren, who recently joined Blake Friedmann as a client of Isobel Dixon's, has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Blogs 2011 for his moving diaries about visiting his mother, Mabel, in her care home. He is writing a memoir about his parents, ZIMMERSONG: A Lifelong Love Story, based on this blog.

Duncan's blog 'Visiting Mabel' on the Saga site is one of seven on the Orwell Blog Prize shortlist, with the final awards ceremony to be held in Westminster on May 17. Each winner of Britain's most prestigious prize for political writing will receive £3000.

Duncan's 'inquisitive, inventive' portrait of Evelyn Waugh, EVELYN! RHAPSODY FOR AN OBSESSIVE LOVE will be published by Beautiful Books in September 2011. Here Duncan, who wrote LOOKING FOR ENID, an acclaimed biography of Enid Blyton, turns his attention to Evelyn Waugh, charting a very personal course through Waugh's life, up until the writing and publication of his final novel, Unconditional Surrender.