The UK’s most prestigious annual book award for fiction written by a woman is returning in 2014 as The BAILEYS Women’s Prize for Fiction. The award, formerly the Orange prize, honours women writing in English.
Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood’s ”Maddadam” (her fourteenth book), is one of the finalists for the prestigious Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction (the former Orange Prize).
The 2014 nominees include four British writers and seven US authors, as well as novelists from countries including Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria and Pakistan. The prize was founded in 1996, and was sponsored by communications company Orange until 2012. The shortlist will be announced on 7th of April, and the winner revealed at London’s Royal Festival Hall on 4 June.
Atwood’s “MaddAddam” (2013) is a SF novel that concludes the dystopian trilogy which began with “Oryx and Crake” (2003) and continued with “The Year of the Flood” (2009).
“MaddAddam” is the final part (a tense tale of pandemic, giant pigs, and survival) of a trilogy that began in 2003 with “Oryx and Crake” and continued six years later with “The Year of the Flood”. At the centre of “MaddAddam” is a band of rag-tag survivors who have out-lasted a global pandemic sent to cleanse the planet of mankind once and for all. “MaddAddam” both completes the series and remixes its opening episodes, which is apt, as motifs of storytelling, splicing, origins and endings run throughout Margaret Atwood’s new work.” – James Kidd, The Independent
“The final entry in Atwood’s brilliant MaddAddam trilogy roils with spectacular and furious satire … Her vision is as affirming as it is cautionary, and the conclusion of this remarkable trilogy leaves us not with a sense of despair at mankind’s failings but with a sense of awe at humanity’s barely explored potential to evolve.”
— Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Atwood has long since established herself as one of the best writers in English today, but her MadAddam Trilogy may well be her best work yet. . . . Brilliant, provocative, sumptuous and downright terrifying.” —The Baltimore Sun
“Leave it to Atwood to find humor in a post-apocalyptic world as she covertly, and brilliantly, addresses questions of how we need to live on an imperiled planet.” — Kansas City Star
“Her shuddering post-apocalyptic vision of the world . . . summons up echoes of George Orwell, Anthony Burgess and Aldous Huxley. . . . is in the forefront of visionary fiction.” — The Seattle Times
The BAILEYS Women’s Prize for Fiction is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman of any nationality in the English language. Established in 1996, the prize was set up to celebrate excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women throughout the world :
“Maddaddam” – Margaret Atwood (Canada)
“The Bear – Claire Cameron (Canada)
“The Strangler Vine – MJ Carter (UK)
“Reasons She Goes to the Woods – Deborah Kay Davies (UK)
“Almost English – Charlotte Mendelson (UK)
“A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing – Eimear McBride (UK/Ireland)
“All the Birds, Singing” – Evie Wyld (Australia/UK)
“The Undertaking” – Audrey Magee (Ireland)
“Burial Rites” – Hannah Kent (Australia)
“The Luminaries” Eleanor Catton (New Zealand)
“The Goldfinch” – Donna Tartt – (US)
“The Burgess Boys” – Elizabeth Strout (US)
“Still Life With Bread Crumbs” Anna Quindlen (US)
“The Signature of All Things” – Elizabeth Gilbert (US)
“Eleven Days” – Lea Carpenter (US)
“The Dogs of Littlefield” – Suzanne Berne (US)
“The Flamethrowers” Rachel Kushner (US)
“The Lowland” – Jhumpa Lahiri (US)
“Americanah” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
“The Shadow of the Crescent Moon” – Fatima Bhutto (Pakistan)
© Mr.Kew – English Blog (courtesy of)
