Reading Lists
Recommended reading lists by 2008 regional winners
Karen King-Aribisala , Best Book winner in the Africa region
for The Hangman's Game
The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing
Set in Rhodesia, this novel begins with a newspaper report: a white woman has been brutally murdered by her black male servant. Thereafter we discover not only those racial and class divides which led to the murder but the social and historical situations from which the aforesaid schisms derived; divides which ultimately resulted in the destruction of relationships between the races and the demise of the entire society.
A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
This novel narrates the Kenyan struggle for independence from the perspective of both colonizers and colonized and deals sensitively with the betrayals of relationships across marriages, politics and indeed the betrayal of ideals; as such it is a sympathetic study of the birth of a nation, one which has suffered the rigours of the 'detention period', the horrors of war.
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Inspired by Charlotte Bronte's depiction of the mad Creole woman in Jane Eyre Rhys re-examines the doomed Antoinette, a white West Indian woman who in the period immediately following upon the Emancipation of Slavery finds that she belongs neither to the world of the slaves, the West Indies nor the world of the Englishman whom she marries. Eventually she is locked up by her husband in his attic, goes mad, sets the house alight and jumps to her death; death appearing to be the sole means of her realizing any kind of freedom.
The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood
This is a wonderfully structured novel, a kind of science fiction; here Atwood creates a futuristic American state in which a patriarchal government subjugates women, the latter being grouped and valued in relation to their ability to bear children and where female roles are defined and dictated by men.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Often regarded as the 'first' African novel, this work details the colonial incursion into Ibo land /Nigeria and the ensuing havoc meted out to the society through the dual forces of 'Bible and Sword'. The character Okonkwo who symbolizes the society refuses to submit to the Europeans, their way of life with dire consequences. 
C.S. Richardson, Best First Book winner in the Canada and Carribbean region for The End of the Alphabet.
Silk by Alessandro Baricco
For me a profoundly moving novella of adventure, love and obsession set amidst the silkworm trade of 19th century France and Japan. Not a word out of place, not a word too many, and not much more than 100 pages long. The very definition of less as gracefully, sensuously, compellingly, more. I read it with alarming frequency.
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The ultimate adventure story, gripping to its core, stripped to its essence. If one is even remotely interested in learning how to write, one starts (and continues) by reading the masters. Every writer has a few, one of mine is Hemingway. A masterpiece (along with A Moveable Feast.)
Ravel by Jean Echenoz
A fictional glimpse of the last ten years in the life of the musical genius Maurice Ravel. Evocative of not only a nuanced character in all his eccentricities, but also the times in which he lived, and a pitch-perfect balance of dry wit and heartbreaking tragedy. Another example of the art and power of a well-crafted short novel.
The Paper House by Carlos María Domínguez
More fable than novel, concerning a man so consumed by literature that he builds a house made of books. And like any great fable, imbued with the finest magic. If one cannot recall their childhood and the wonder that reading brought back then, I would recommend this slight and near-perfect novella as a reminder.
The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel
Manguel's various treatises (A History of Reading, A Reading Diary, the aforementioned Library at Night being my favourite) form a collective affirmation (as if any book lover needed one) that there is no more pleasurable nor more fulfilling pursuit than the keeping and reading of books, of any vintage or length or genre.
The Pax Britannica Trilogy by Jan Morris
A three-volume master class: weaving a sweeping, page-turner epic from an infinite number of small stories with an even more infinite cast of characters. In this case the stories are true, the characterizations put everyone in the room with you, the epic is the history of the British Empire. If only all books, fact or fiction or somewhere between, were this exciting and moving. Note: I would (and most likely have) read anything by Jan Morris. Even if she re-wrote the Cardiff phone book. 
Karen Foxlee, Best First Book winner in the South East Asia and South Pacfic region for The Anatomy of Wings.
No Great Mischief by Alastair MacLeod
I read this book about a year ago and it is now one of my all time favourites. It is the story of the MacDonald family, descended from the Scot Calum Ruadh, living in Nova Scotia. In particular it tells the story of two brothers – Calum and Alexander who have lives that take very different paths. Macleod's writing is so beautiful and some of the images in these books are seared into my memory. I have cried over many books, but this book made me weep. The bleak landscape of Nova Scotia is so beautifully realised. So powerful is this writing that when I opened it yesterday to check some names I found I had started reading it all over again.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The perfect novel. This is the story of twins Estha and Rahel reunited in their family home in Ayemenem after many years and the events that led to their separation. The thing I love about this book is that through the course of a car trip to pick up cousin Sophie Mohl, who has arrived from London and her subsequent drowning in the Meenachal, the novel expands effortlessly so that we know the entire history of the family in exquisite detail. Arundhati Roy writes in the third person but somehow we see into the minds of all her characters. She is a genius in her use of tension and of time. I turned to page one as soon as I finished this book.
Eucalyptus by Murray Bail
My favourite Australian book and a previous winner of the Commonwealth Writer's Prize. This is a compelling story, almost like a fairytale, about a strange courtship. A father, who has planted every type of Eucalypt on his property, offers the hand of his daughter to any man who can name them all. The mesmerizing tale is intersected by stories that the suitor tells – stories within stories. I love it. The writing is truly beautiful, the story seems to move so effortlessly, you drift with it, you never want it to end.
Peace like a River by Leif Enger
This is the story of a family; a boy called Rueben who has severe asthma, his poetry loving sister Swede and their miracle performing father Jeremiah Land. They are on the road chasing after Davy, the eldest child, who is on the run from prison after committing a double murder. The prose in this novel is exquisite and the landscape of the Dakota Badlands is beautifully drawn but above all it is just such a wonderful story, it barrels along, brilliant!
