Random House Struik wins 2014 Sunday Times Literary Awards
Random House Struik authors Max du Preez and Claire
Robertson have been announced as the winners of the 2014 Sunday Times Literary
Awards.
Robertson won the Fiction Prize for her novel The Spiral House, published by Umuzi, and Du Preez won the Alan Paton Award
for his book A Rumour of Spring: South
Africa after 20 Years of Democracy, published by Zebra Press.
The Sunday Times Literary Awards, in association with Exclusive
Books, mark their 25th anniversary this year. The Alan Paton Award is given for
a work of non-fiction that promotes “the illumination of truthfulness,
especially those forms of it which are new, delicate, unfashionable and fly in
the face of power; compassion; elegance of writing; and intellectual and moral
integrity”. The Fiction Prize is given for a “work of rare imagination and
style, evocative, textured and a tale so compelling as to become an enduring
landmark in contemporary fiction.” Both prizes are worth R75,000.
The Fiction Prize judges called The Spiral House an “astonishingly adept and richly imagined novel,
a layered, subtle story that resonates with important ideas about history. We
applaud the sensuous quality of the writing and were amazed by its remarkable
language.”
Max du Preez’s book was hailed by the Alan Paton judging panel
as: “a bracing, opinionated read, ‘vintage Max du Preez’. A nuanced and
well-crafted work, casting a rigorous critical eye not only on the powers that
be, but on ordinary citizens and the writer himself. This is the best of all
the reflections on 20 years of democracy published last year.”
For more information on these titles, visit www.randomstruik.co.za or contact Kim
Peters at kimp@randomstruik.co.za
/ 011 484-3538 or Kim Taylor at kimt@randomstruik.co.za
/ 021 460-5400
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