The Commonwealth Foundation has announced the regional winners for the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
Regional Winner, Pacific, for the Commonwealth Book Prize is The Last Thread by Michael Sala (Affirm Press).
Awarded for best first book, the prize was open to writers who had their first novel (full length work of fiction) published between January 1 and December 31, 2012.
Regional Winner, Pacific, for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize was Things with Faces by Zoë Meager from New Zealand.
Michael Sala is an Australian writer and teacher whose short fiction has been published in anthologies, including The Best Australian Stories three times. In 2007, he was shortlisted for the Australian/Vogel Literary Award.
The Last Thread, his first novel, is Sala’s life in fiction. From his early years in the Netherlands to growing up in Australia during the 1980s, Sala recalls the secret surrounding his estranged Greek father and how scandalous events from the past fractured his family.
It is a moving chronicle of a boy’s turbulent relationship with his bullying stepfather, aloof older brother and adored mother, whose cheerful apathy has devastating consequences.
As his life unfolds, Sala — now a father — must decide if he can free himself from the dark pull of the past.
“Reminiscent of the great autobiographical novels of JM Coetzee and Michael Ondaatje, The Last Thread is a beautifully crafted work from an exceptional new writer.”
The overall winners of the Commonwealth Book Prize and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize will be announced at the Hay Festival in the United Kingdom on May 31.
Recent Comments