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Prize winners The Man Booker Award r!
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The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The late 19th century newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer was the first to call for the training of journalists at the university level in a school of journalism. From an original bequest of two million dollars, Pulitzer Prizes for journalism, literature, music, and drama are awarded annually. The 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was awarded to Paul Harding for Tinkers ($24.95). This debut novel is a powerful celebration of life in which a New England father and son, through suffering and joy, transcend their imprisoning lives and offer new ways of perceiving the world and mortality. The real star is Harding’s language, which dazzles whether he’s describing the workings of clocks, sensory images of nature, the many engaging side characters who populate the book, or even a short passage on how to build a bird nest. This is an especially gorgeous example of novelistic craftsmanship.
Now in its 42nd year the Man Booker Prize aims to reward the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. This year’s winner is Howard Jacobson for The Finkler Question ($32.99). “He should have seen it coming. His life had been one mishap after another. So he should have been prepared for this one…”
We are a group of like-minded independent booksellers who first came together in 1978 at the suggestion of Philip Bray, who also founded a similar group in Melbourne in 1979. The object of getting together was to provide mutual support and to share our book knowledge enabling us to provide better, more professional, service to our customers. We meet every month to this end.
Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular former radio producer, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Despite a prickly relationship and very different lives, they’ve never quite lost touch with each other – or with their former teacher, Libor Sevcik, a Czech always more concerned with the wider world than with exam results. The Finkler Question is a scorching story of friendship and loss, exclusion and belonging, and of the wisdom and humanity of maturity.
Partly as a result of groups such as ours, independent bookselling is far stronger in Australia than it is in the U.K. or the U.S.A. In those countries, bookselling is unhealthily dominated by chain bookstores resulting in far less diversity.
Funny, furious, unflinching, this extraordinary novel shows one of the finest writers of our times at his brilliant best.
We hope you have enjoyed reading this guide and have found it useful. Let us know if you have any feedback so that we can make the next Independent Book Guide even better!
Is it possible to be a member of a group and still be independent? Definitely, yes. To be independent does not require a vow of isolation! While we share information and co-operate on projects such as this guide, we celebrate our independence. Each of our shops is very different, reflecting both the areas we serve and our own personalities. How are the books in this guide selected? The books come from around the world and from publishers of all sizes, ranging from huge international companies to tiny local ones. We ask the publishers to submit to us a list of their best books for Summer 10/11. We then put those lists ‘under the microscope’ and select, essentially, the best of the best.
Our contact details are on page 11.
Books to delight your eye…to relax with…to stimulate your mind
IBG 2010/11
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