Guardian shortlist takes world as its oyster (original) (raw)

Five novice authors are picked today to compete for the Guardian First Book award.

Their works vary from a daringly ambitious 800-page novel about wizards' magic, to a slim volume of poems that catches the natural magic of flights of choughs climbing from a headland:

inking the air with trial after trial,
localised as downpour, a pencil of rain.

The shortlist takes the world as its oyster. The remaining three books feature the pangs of adjustment by Latvian immigrants to Toronto, a walk across Afghanistan just after the war, and the scientific lessons of the curious but still deeply human world of conjoined twins, hermaphrodites, and men with Cyclopean eyes.

The five are a mix of genres, in keeping with the £10,000 award's choice from fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Ground Water by Matthew Hollis is a collection of poems; Natasha by David Bezmozgis is a book of short stories; Susanna Clarke is shortlisted for her novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell; non-fiction is represented by Rory Stewart's The Places in Between, and Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body, by Armand Marie Leroi.

The eight judges - arguably the most eminent panel of any literary prize this year - make their choice on December 1. The award is unique in giving a voice to readers' groups run by Waterstone's. The groups' views are taken into account in deciding the shortlist, and they have a judge, this year Stuart Broom of Waterstone's, on the panel. This has yielded a consensus among the groups in Manchester, Glasgow, Nottingham and London on which writer should win.

A favourite is the challenging but intriguing Mutants, a study for the lay person of the genetic grammar of its subject by a reader in evolutionary developmental biology at Imperial College London.

Three of four groups were keen, and Nottingham was split down the middle. Islington in London found the book "rich and rewarding, beautifully and wittily written". Manchester was moved. In Glasgow "everyone found this book both stimulating and enjoyable". However, in one group, many had to struggle with the science, some confessed to an "unsavoury fascination" with Leroy's case histories.

If bookshop sales were a guide, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell would easily be frontrunner. Susanna Clarke's epic, footnote-strewn fantasy of an England in which theoretical and practical magic are mainstream activities, capable of defeating Napoleon with cloud ships, continues to sell 4,000 copies a week more than a month after publication. This is nearly what The Line of Beauty sold in in its first seven-day flush of momentum as Booker prize winner.

However, while the story was generally liked in Nottingham, it was disliked in Manchester and the focus of disagreement in Glasgow.

Another favourite was Matthew Hollis's poems, described as "memorable" in Islington, comparable with Robert Frost in Manchester, striking in Nottingham, and "like music in its ability to soothe" in Glasgow. David Bezmozgis's Canadian short stories pleased three of the four groups. The Places in Between pleased two - though some readers suspected Rory Stewart of spying in Afghanistan, with "much speculation" about his political agenda.

Claire Armitstead, literary editor of the Guardian and chair of the judging process, said: "I'm delighted by the variety this year, and believe it once again reflects the range, enthusiasm and discrimination of both our judges and the members of the Waterstone's reading groups who play such a vital part in making it happen."

Poetry: Non-fiction

Ground Water, by Matthew Hollis (Bloodaxe)

Taking water as a setting for his poems and also as a metaphor, Matthew Hollis has put together a debut collection of striking accomplishment and emotional range

Fiction

Natasha, by David Bezmozgis (Cape)

A Latvian emigrant to Canada, Bezmozgis uses the short story to create precise snapshots of a community of exiles who are disoriented geographically, linguistically and historically

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)

The biggest book of the autumn, in volume of words at least, it centres on the clash of egos in an alternative history of pre-Victorian England where Napoleon is defeated by cloud ships

The Places in Between, by Rory Stewart (Picador)

On foot, through the Afghan winter, with only a toothless mastiff (and initially two footsore secret policemen) for company, Stewart is so far off the beaten track that his evocative book feels like a long lost relic of the great age of exploration

Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body, by Armand Marie Leroi (HarperCollins)

This book, written by a lecturer in evolutionary biology, sets out to nullify its considerable horror potential using science, clarity and elegance