Alex Lester has been awarded the 2015 Tibor Jones Pageturner Prize for his harrowing and darkly beautiful Bush War novel, WHEN ALL THE MEN ARE WOUNDED. The prize includes £1,000 and literary representation by Laura Macdougall in her new role of literary agent at Tibor Jones & Associates.
The panel of judges consisted of Kevin Conroy Scott, co-founder and Creative Director at Tibor Jones, Simon Heafield, Marketing Manager at Foyles, Jonathan Main from Bookseller Crow and Chloe Mavrommatis of Dulwich Books.
‘Right from the first page it’s clear that When All the Men Are Wounded is something special. While the atmosphere positively throbs with dramatic tension, Alex Lester never lets the sense of menace obscure the characters, who, while lightly drawn, are as complex and real as the historical events that form the backdrop to the novel. Using a style by turns allegorical and visceral, Lester tackles the themes of race, politics, family and war in a novel as sophisticated as it is ambitious.’ Simon Heafield, Marketing Manager, Foyles
‘Very strong writing with bold scenes give it the feeling of something written by Cormac McCarthy set under an African sun.’ Jonathan Main, The Bookseller Crow
‘This muscular and surprising novel follows the fates of two brothers through the Rhodesian Bush War and the dissolution of the country, a conflict I knew very little about. Their turbulent relationships with each other, their parents and the land where they grew up, set against the background of racism, guerrilla warfare and corruption, makes for compelling, if unsettling, reading. The almost inevitable conclusion left me saddened by the futility of war and the toxic stain of hate. The kind of book you’ll want to discuss and ponder long after you finish reading.’ Chloe Mavrommatis, Dulwich Books
The biennial prize is open to any unrepresented author with a completed or near to completion, unpublished novel. More than two hundred manuscripts were submitted for the 2015 prize, which was eventually reduced to a shortlist of six. FAULTLINES (Shubhangi Swarup), LITTLE MOUSETRAPS (Helen Dann), THE DEBUT (Theresa Howes), THE HOUR-GLASS TRAP (Rebecca Ferrier), WHEN ALL THE MEN ARE WOUNDED (Alex Lester) and ZAP (Svetlana Lavochkina).
2013 Pageturner Prize winner Anna Freeman’s debut novel The Fair Fight was published to much acclaim with Sarah Waters saying that it was “a hugely exciting and entertaining novel, written with warmth, charm, authority and, above all, terrific flair.” TV Rights have been sold to BBC and the paperback will be published 7th May 2015 (W&N). Costa Prize winner Nathan Filer (THE SHOCK OF THE FALL) was shortlisted for the prize in 2011.
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