Award season has come and gone

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

I have added to my list of authors to read, Alice Munro, this year's Nobel Peace Prize in Literature winner. Yes, because she has won the Nobel Peace Prize, but more so because she is a prolific writer of short stories - a genre I am becoming more and more partial to.

With the announcement of the Man Booker prize winner last night, Eleanor Catton for her book The Luminaries - making her the youngest ever winner, with the longest ever book of this prestigious prize, we can now say that award season is over.
The shortlist, which was comprised of, amongst others, Noviolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names and  Jhumpa Lahiri's Lowland  had me torn for two reasons: I was rooting for Bulawayo - simply because it would have been great to have an African win it this year,  but I was also keeping fingers crossed for Lahiri - a writer of the short story genre who I greatly admire.

I am not rushing out to buy either's book just yet - lest I feel like I am succumbing to the literature prize spin-doctoring, which I probably would be. I am currently sinking my teeth into William Styron's Darkness Visible - a memoir about his battle with depression, a subject that has always intrigued me, and it is proving to be a candidly told tale of a frightening illness. Teju Cole's Open City is next - a writer that's been compared to literary greats like J.M. Coetzee is definitely worth reading.

So many books, so little time.