17.May.2009 Sunday Salon: Bookish Thingies
I started Purple Hibiscus yesterday, because next week is the Sydney Writers’ Festival weekend which I’m going to, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) will be there. So I’m hoping to finish this book beforehand. There are a few other authors that I’m interested in, like Tash Aw (Malaysia) whose book The Harmony Silk Factory I have on my shelf (but have not read) and Mohammed Hanif (Pakistan – the Exploding Mangoes guy). The event has definitely introduced me to more local authors who I have not paid attention to prior to this. I would definitely like to read more books by local authors in the near future.
Talking about local author, the overall winners of Commonwealth Writers’ Prize have been announced! The winner of Best Book is an Aussie!
CHRISTOS TSIOLKAS of AUSTRALIA wins Best Book for THE SLAP
MOHAMMED HANIF of PAKISTAN wins Best First Book for A CASE OF EXPLODING MANGOES
I’ve been coveting The Slap for a few weeks now. I should pick it up pretty soon. I am now even more excited after it won the prize!
Taken straight from the publisher’s site Allen&Unwin:
At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own.
This event has a shocking ricochet effect on a group of people, mostly friends, who are directly or indirectly influenced by the event.
In this remarkable novel, Christos Tsiolkas turns his unflinching and all-seeing eye onto that which connects us all: the modern family and domestic life in the twenty-first century. The Slap is told from the points of view of eight people who were present at the barbecue. The slap and its consequences force them all to question their own families and the way they live, their expectations, beliefs and desires.
What unfolds is a powerful, haunting novel about love, sex and marriage, parenting and children, and the fury and intensity – all the passions and conflicting beliefs – that family can arouse. In its clear-eyed and forensic dissection of the ever-growing middle class and its aspirations and fears, The Slap is also a poignant, provocative novel about the nature of loyalty and happiness, compromise and truth.
Read more about The Slap here.
Lastly, my giveaway for My Year Without Sex movie tickets is still on! So far, well, one person has entered. This could be really easy for me..
One lovely video on Sydney Writers’ Festival to end the post. It’s Zen like. Mmh..
mee