Announcing the shortlist for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2008, Henry Sutton, Chair of the judging panel said:
'With three exceptional works of non-fiction, two wildly original novels and a narrative poem of stunning power, the shortlist for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2008 could not be stronger, or more thematically or stylistically diverse.
'Yet all exhibit an assurance and vitality rare in contemporary literature. That four are debuts and all are by authors under the age of 35 is staggering. That all are by men is another matter – we simply picked the best books. And each of these works are, in many ways, landmarks. They stand up.'
Viv Bird, Director of Booktrust commented:
'The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize is one of Booktrust’s most important prizes, identifying — as it has done so successfully for the past 66 years — the very best young writers in the early stage of their careers. This year’s shortlist incorporates fiction, non-fiction and poetry and is sure to appeal to a wide range of readers'
The shortlist
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Atlantic Books)
Born in a village in the dark heart of India, Balram Halwai is taken out of school by his family and put to work in a teashop. His dreams of escape come true when a rich village landlord hires him as a chauffeur for his son, daughter-in-law and their two Pomeranian dogs. From behind the wheel of a Honda, Balram sees Delhi for the first time …
Over the course of seven nights, the White Tiger tells his story in Adiga’s Man Booker Prize-winning debut novel.
The Broken Word by Adam Foulds (Jonathan Cape)
Kenya in the 1950s: one of the darkest episodes in British colonial history. Sporadic attacks by dispossessed Kikuyu on the British now occupying their land escalate as the colonialists panic and drive most of the Kikuyu population into prison camps.
Adam Fould’s stunning poetic sequence follows the experience of Tom, recently returned to his family’s farm in Kenya and propelled into the violence of the Mau Mau uprising. It then mutates into a meditation on the inheritance of conflict and the destruction of innocence.
The Secret Life of Words by Henry Hitchings (John Murray)
The author of Dr Johnson’s Dictionary returns with a magisterial and entertaining study of how English became English, and why it has absorbed words from more than 350 other languages, many originating from the most unlikely places.
From the Norman Conquest to the present day, Hitchings narrates the story of English as an archive of our human experience, peppering his text with hundreds of examples.
The Bloody White Baron by James Palmer (Faber)
Few people will have heard of Baron Ungern-Sternberg, a violent, anti-Semitic fanatic who took over Mongolia in 1919 with a ragtag force of White Russians, Siberians, Japanese and native Mongolians, but few will forget him after reading James Palmer’s full-blooded biography.
The Baron’s beliefs were a cocktail of the mystical and esoteric, combined with the vengefulness of Mongolian Buddhism. After the war, in which he fought with reckless bravery, Ungern spiralled into ever darker obsessions and treated his enemies ever more cruelly. In the end, Trotsky had to send the Red Army after his desperate band.
God’s Own Country by Ross Raisin (Viking)
Expelled from school for an incident that shadows him still, Marsdyke works on his father’s hill farm on the Yorkshire Moors. From a distance, he watches as outsiders buy holiday cottages and flashy new bars open in the local towns.
When a new family moves into the area, Marsdyke begins a friendship with the defiant teenage daughter, but as his mind descends into a state of dangerous delusion, their relationship descends into something more disquieting.
Replete with dialect (‘I glegged another look at my watch’), Raisin’s dark tale has an unhinged quality that never steps outside its world. Nothing is superfluous in this tense, unsettling and at times very funny novel.
Selling Your Father’s Bones by Brian Schofield (Harper Press)
In the summer of 1877, around seven hundred members of the Nez Perce Native American tribe set out on an epic 1,700-mile journey through the American West. Forced from their homeland by the great nineteenth-century wave of settlement from the east, the Nez Perce passed through mountains, forests, badlands and prairies and had to fight battles and skirmishes with the pursuing United States Army as they raced towards the Canadian border.
Schofield retraces this remarkable exodus, telling not only the story of the tribe’s fight for survival, but the also the destructive legacy of a westward migration initially predicated on patriotism and religios zeal.
Find out about the shortlisted authors
About the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
The prize was founded over 60 years ago in honour of the writer John Llewellyn Rhys, who was killed in action in the Second World War. His young wife, also a writer, began the award to honour and celebrate his life.
Past winners of the award include Margaret Drabble in 1966, William Boyd in 1982, Jeanette Winterson in 1987, Ray Monk in 1990, Matthew Kneale in 1992 and David Mitchell in 1999. Last year’s winner was Uzodinma Iweala for his novel Beasts of No Nation.
The winner will receive £5000, with the other shortlisted authors receiving £500 each.
The winner will be announced at a ceremony at Century Club, London, on Monday 24 November.
