Hilary Mantel has been awarded the 2009 Mann Booker Prize for her novel Wolf Hall. A historical novel recounted through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, who started out as a Blacksmith’s boy and eventually became one of the most powerful men in England beside Henry VIII. Wolf Hall has been the most popular novel ever to win the Mann Booker Prize. Hilary Mantel has written nine other novels, two have been historical, with A Greater Place of Safety published in 1992 and set in France at the time of the French revolution, winning the Sunday Express Book of the year. Beyond Black published in 2005 was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction the same year.

The shortlist for this year’s Man Booker Prize has been announced with six finalists chosen from 13 on the long list and which in turn was chosen from the 132 titles submitted.

The shortlist includes a semi autobiographical novel titled Summer Time, by the 2003 Noble Prize for Literature winner J.M. Coetzee. He previously won the Booker Prize in 1983 for The Life and Times of Michael K, and in 1999 for Disgrace. A. S. Byatt with her novel The Children’s Book is also a finalist and a past winner of this prize in 1990 for Possession: a romance.

The most popular book on the shortlist is Hilary Mantel’s historical novel Wolf Hall. Other finalists are Adam Foulds with The Quickening Maze, Sarah Waters with The Little Stranger and Simon Mawer with The Glass Room. The winner will be announced on 6^th October 2009.

The 2009 Man Booker Prize long-list has recently been announced. From 135 submitted novels, the panel of five judges have chosen thirteen. Of these, four are past-shortlisted writers, these include Colm Toibin for Brooklyn, William Trevor for Love and Summer, Sarah Waters for The Little Stranger, and Hilary Mantel for Wolf Hall. Also included were two writers who have previously won this award, A. S. Byatt for The Children’s Book and past double winner J. M. Coetzee for Summertime. The short-list will be announced on 8 September 2009, with the winner on 6 October 2009.

Wellington City Libraries congratulates all the 2009 Montana New Zealand Prize winners, especially Emily Perkins winner of the Montana Medal for Fiction for her novel titled, Novel About My Wife.  Also Wellington writers Jill Trevelyan, winner of the top non-fiction prize for her biography, Rita Angus: An Artist’s Life , Kate De Goldi with the readers’ choice prize for The 10 PM Question, and Jenny Bornholdt, for winning the poetry prize for her collection, The Rocky Shore.  More information, past and present, on the New Zealand Montana Book Awards can be found on the New Zealand Book Council website.

The winner of the 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, one of the literary world’s richest, was recently announced. This year’s award was won by Michael Thomas for his first novel Man Goes Down. Brilliant in its scope and energy, deeply moving and insightful this novel tell the story of a young black father of three in a biracial marriage trying to claim a piece of the American Dream he has hoped for since his youth.

Michael Thomas was born and raised in Boston, where his novel is set. He recieved his B. A. from Hunter College and his M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College. He teaches at Hunter and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Well known, and much acclaimed New Zealand writer Emily Perkins has won the fifth annual Believer Book Award for 2009 with Novel about my wife. The Believer Book Award winner is chosen by readers of The Believer magazine, from a short list of novels selected by the editors as representing the strongest works of fiction published in each year. Novel about my wife, although set in London, was completed in New Zealand when she moved from London to Auckland with her family. It can be described as a psychological thriller, ghost story or domestic drama and is her third novel, the others being, Leave before you go, published 1998 and New girl published in 2001.

John Updike the celebrated, award winning American author has died of lung cancer aged 76. He was a prolific writer, having 27 novels published along with 14 short story collections, plays and numerous volumes of poetry, essays and criticism. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction twice, the first for Rabbit is Rich in 1981 and the second for Rabbit at Rest ten years later. His most recent novel, published in 2008 was The Widows of Eastwick. This was a sequel to his 1984 novel, The Witches of Eastwick made into a motion picture starring Jack Nicholson. He was on the staff of the New Yorker magazine for many years and later became a highly regarded art crtic and reviewer.

The nominations for this year’s Oscar contenders have just been released. (Full list available here)
Although most of the nominated films are yet to be released on DVD, we do have The Dark Knight featuring Heath Ledger in his Oscar nominated role as the Joker.

While waiting for the current round of nominated films to be released to DVD, why not take advantage of the Libraries’ new 4 for 3 DVD offer and check out some previous Oscar winning films.

Revolutionary Road, the first of seven novels by Richard Yates, was published in 1961 and was much acclaimed by the critics. Set in the mid 1950s it tells the story of a young married couple, who feel they are more than ordinary, they dispise their urban lifestyle, its people and the social confines of the time they inhabit. They are ambitious for a life beyond, filled with purpose and the promise they are sure they deserve. This novel reflects the social aspects of post war America brilliantly. The movie, based on the novel is due for release on 22 January, and stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet ( who won a Golden Globe for her performance). You could win a double pass, courtesy Paramount Pictures to the film Revolutionary Road by completing a simple quiz on our Fiction webpage and sending us your details.

Fiction writer and poet Emma Neale has been awarded the NZ Authors’ Janet Frame Memorial Award. This award is offered to a mid-career writer to assist in furthering their writing career. Emma is the daughter of well known fiction writers and editors Barbara Else and Chris Else and was born in Dunedin, where she still lives. She received her PhD from University College, London. Night Swimming, her first novel was published in 1998 and Sleeve-notes, her first collection of poetry was published in 1999. She has published three other novels, with Relative Strangers the most recent. Her most recent collection of poetry, Spark, was published early this year.