Ann Patchett's works have long had the attention of the Orange Prize juries. The Magician's Assistant was shortlisted for the 1998 Orange Prize, and Bel Canto won in 2002; it wasn't surprising to see State of Wonder make the jury's shortlist in 2012. The most striking element of the novel is its
Teju Cole, Open City Recorded Books, 2011 Reader: Kevin Mambo It was fitting that this was my first audiobook of 2012; I was walking the streets of my own city, listening to this story, while the narrator, Julius, was walking the streets of New York City. He is walking, the birds
The Time In Between is essential reading for those who thought that reading about the Spanish Civil War meant Hemingway and Orwell. In her lush and sprawling novel, María Dueñas presents the era via the perspective of "an independent woman in difficult times". There was no room for a seamstress like
House of Anansi, 2011 Edem Awumey’s Dirty Feet is a slim volume, but its contents are hefty indeed. Askia’s story reminds the reader that one is wise not to judge insides by outsides, that the dimensions of an individual’s inner life expand even beyond personal experiences, that one
The Love Letter was longlisted in 1996, the year that Helen Dunmore's The Spell of Winter won the Orange Prize. The idea intrigued me straight away, even before I saw the 1999 film of the same name: a love letter addressed and signed ambiguously, discovered by a 42-year-old
