News & Reviews

WORD: Rose Tremain wins 2008 Orange Prize for Fiction
Edited Press Release

British author Rose Tremain won the thirteenth Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction with her tenth novel "The Road Home" (Chatto & Windus), the prize committee announced today. Tremain was presented with the 30,000- pound prize and the 'Bessie', a limited edition bronze figurine, at an awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall at Southbank Centre, London, hosted by Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction co-founder Kate Mosse.

"The judges felt that this was a powerfully imagined story and a wonderful feat of emotional empathy told with great warmth and humour," said chair of judges Kirsty Lang, who was also the awards presenter, in a press release.

The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction was set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote fiction written by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible. The Orange Prize is awarded to the best novel of the year written in English by a woman.

"Women's fiction has gone from strength to strength - we are delighted there is so much support from the public and the media for such a powerful literature platform," said Hattie Magee, head of partnerships for Orange. "This year's Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction has seen another exceptional shortlist, but in the end, there can be only one winner - many congratulations to Rose Tremain."

Rose Tremain writes novels, short stories and screenplays. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer Richard Holmes. Her books have been translated into numerous languages and have won many prizes, including the Whitbread Novel Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Prix Femina Etranger, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Angel Literary Awards and the Sunday Express Book of the Year.

Tremain's novel, "The Colour," was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2004. Last month, The Road Home won Best Fiction category at the second annual Good Housekeeping Book Awards and three of her novels are currently in development as films.

The Road Home is a story about Lev, an immigrant on his way from Eastern Europe to Britain seeking work who is a tiny part of a vast diaspora that is changing British society. Lev has no job, little money and few words of English. He has only his memories, his hopes and a certain alarming skill with the preparation of food. Behind him loom the figures of his dead wife, his beloved daughter and his outrageous friend Rudy who - dreaming of the wealthy West - lives largely for his battered Chevrolet.

In front of Lev lies the deep strangeness of the British: their hostile streets, clannish pubs, lonely flats and their obsession with celebrity. London holds out the alluring possibilities of friendship, sex, money and a new career; but, more than this, of human understanding, a sense of belonging.

Previous winners of the Orange Prize are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun (2007), joe blow Zadie Smith for On Beauty (2006), Lionel Shriver for We Need to Talk About Kevin (2005), Andrea Levy for Small Island (2004), Valerie Martin for Property (2003), Ann Patchett for Bel Canto (2002) and Kate Grenville for The Idea of Perfection (2001), among others.

Also, Joanna Kavenna won the the 2008 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers for her novel Inglorious (Faber and Faber). The award recognizes authors for their emerging talent and the evidence of future potential. Kavenna earned a 10,000 pound bursary for her win.

Check out the Orange Prize website for more information about the award.

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