The Orange Prize for Fiction
shortlist was announced on April 17th. Esi Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues,
which won the Giller, and Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder are nominated, and I
feel strongly that these two are favourites for the Prize. The other nominees
are Anne Enright for The Forgotten Waltz, Cynthia Ozick for Foreign Bodies,
Madeline Miller for The Song of Achilles and Georgina Harding for Painter of
Silence.
It is a talented field: Patchett
has already won the award, in 2002 for Bel Canto, Enright is a Booker winner
(2007’s The Gathering), Half-Blood Blues has been nominated for myriad prizes
this year, and Ozick is an American octogenarian with many accolades to her
name. The dark horse pick is The Song of Achilles. Miller’s debut novel is a
sweeping retelling of The Iliad, repositioning Achilles and Patroclus as
lovers. Finally, Harding is an unknown to me, since her book is not available
here yet, and I’ve not heard of her previously. It could be great! I have no
idea.
If I had to guess, I would say
State of Wonder is the likely winner, though I would not be surprised if it
went to Edugyan, Enright, or Ozick.
The winner will be announced on May 30th, 2012.
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