It's a doorstopping novel that needs to be read properly rather than in snatches and tackles big subjects that resonate today – not least, the media creation of, and obsession with, celebrity.īeginning in 1929, it follows the life of Harrison Shepherd from his sensitive teenage years in Mexico to fame in 1950s America as the reclusive author of Aztec swashbucklers. The Lacuna, made up of memoir, diaries, letters, newspaper reports and congressional transcripts, is arguably the most demanding of the six books on the shortlist. It wasn't like we were scraping in any sense.' They were three of the finest books I've read in a long time. 'In the end I suppose that while a couple of us felt very passionately about The Lacuna everyone was happy for it to be named winner. 'It was a bit like trying to choose between your three beloved children,' she said.

The American novelist held off heavyweight competition from Hilary Mantel, for Wolf Hall, and Lorrie Moore, for A Gate at the Stairs, to take what is the biggest literary award for women writers.ĭaisy Goodwin, the TV producer who chaired this year's judges, praised The Lacuna's 'breathtaking scale and shattering moments of poignancy' and said the winner was only ever between the three books. The other 2023 judges include British novelist Rachel Joyce London-based journalist, podcaster and writer Bella Mackie Nigerian-born novelist and short story writer Irenosen Okojie and British politician Tulip Siddiq.An epic, ambitious novel that straddles the Mexican revolution and the crazed communist witch-hunts of 1950s America was tonight named winner of this year's Orange prize for fiction.īarbara Kingsolver took the £30,000 prize for The Lacuna, her eagerly awaited first novel since 2000. 'You've got 16th-century Florence, you've got the Indian Ocean told from the point of view of the creatures that live in it,' she said. The finalists also include three debut novels: Trespasses, a love story by Irish writer Louise Kennedy that is set during Northern Ireland's years of violence Fire Rush, a dub reggae-drenched coming-of-age tale by Britain's Jacqueline Crooks and Sarajevo-set war saga Black Butterflies by Britain's Priscilla Morris.īroadcast journalist Louise Minchin, who is chairing the panel of judges, said the six finalists had an 'amazing' imaginative scope. Writers and Company 58:18 How the tragic story of Shakespeare’s son Hamnet inspired Maggie O’Farrell’s prize-winning novel Eleanor Wachtel speaks with Maggie O’Farrell, winner of the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction for her novel, Hamnet & Judith.

Kingsolver the lacuna