McFarlane longlisted for ‘Guardian’ First Book Award

11 August 2014 Books+Publishing

Australian author Fiona McFarlane has been longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award for her novel The Night Guest (Hamish Hamilton).

McFarlane’s book is one of 11 titles longlisted for the UK prize, which is awarded to the year’s best debut in any genre. The winner of the £10,000 (A$18,084) award will be announced at the end of November.

Chair of the judging panel and editor of the Guardian Review Lisa Allardice praised the high standard of this year’s longlist. ‘These debuts deal with urgent contemporary topics—the rise of Alzheimer’s, terrorism— and universal themes of love, loss and mortality. Some of them are incredibly sad, all are enriching in some way. I look forward to seeing what the reading groups and the judges make of them.’

Allardice will be joined on the judging panel by novelist Anne Enright, writer Mary Beard, MP Tristram Hunt and psychotherapist Josh Cohen, with input from Waterstones reading groups.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites (Picador) was shortlisted for last year’s Guardian First Book Award, which went to Irish author Donal Ryan for The Spinning Heart (Doubleday).

To see the full longlist, visit the Guardian website here.

Category: Local news