Téa Obreht won this years Orange Prize for Fiction with her debut novel
The Tiger's Wife. The Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world.
Bettany Hughes, Chair of Judges, said: "The Tiger's Wife is an exceptional book and Téa Obreht is a truly exciting new talent. Obreht's powers of observation and her understanding of the world are remarkable. By skilfully spinning a series of magical tales she has managed to bring the tragedy of chronic Balkan conflict thumping into our front rooms with a bittersweet vivacity."
Some of our library team celebrated the evening by attending a meeting of local reading groups in Peterborough Central Library. The groups took turns taking to the stage to discuss one of the shortlisted books.
Our library team reading group talked about
Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson. The novel follows the story of Grace and her life in a mental institution. The group was divided in their opinion; all agreed it was well written but while some found it powerful, others didn't enjoy the difficult subject matter.
Central Reading Group found The Tiger's Wife to be also well written but fragmented with hard to accept elements of 'magical realism'.
The evening culminated in a vote to decide the best book before hearing the official descision of the Orange Prize judges. Surprisingly Peterborough reading groups chose Grace Williams Says it loud as their winner, disagreeing with Orange! All agreed it was a great way to celebrate Orange Prize night. We 'live tweeted' from the event so you can read a summary of the proceedings on the
RNIB Read Twitter feed.
If you like the sound of this, why not find out more about
joining your local reading group? RNIB can help you by providing extra books so you can keep up with the reading list.