Bibliofemme News
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16/11/2005
London waitress competes with top authors for Whitbread
Johannesburg-born Rachel Zadok, a waitress in London whose first novel was published as a result of entering a competition on the Richard & Judy TV show, has been shortlisted for the Whitbread Book Awards along with writers including Nick Hornby and Salman Rushdie.
Zadok's novel, Gem Squash Tokoloshe, is about a girl growing up amidst apartheid and unrest in South Africa.
She entered the first How to Get Published competition on Channel 4's Richard & Judy last year and, although she did not win, it led to a 20,000 contract with Pan Macmillan.
Her book has been shortlisted with three others in the First Novel category and could be competing with Hornby and Rushdie for the Whitbread Book of the Year, chosen from the winners of each category in January.
The judges called Gem Squash Tokoloshe a "powerful evocation of a child's-eye view of rural South Africa". They added: "Rachel Zadok sets the private drama of a collapsing household against the backdrop of a changing nation and creates a tangible atmosphere of menace."
The winners of each of the categories will be announced in London on 4 January 2006 with the announcement of the overall winner of the £30,000 prize, chosen from the five winners, following on 24 January.
Novel award shortlist
Nick Hornby - Long Way Down (Viking)
Salman Rushdie Shalimar the Clown (Jonathan Cape)
Ali Smith - The Accidental (Hamish Hamilton)
Christopher Wilson - The Ballad of Lee Cotton (Little, Brown)
First novel shortlist
Tash Aw - The Harmony Silk Factory (Harper Perennial)
Diana Evans - 26a (Chatto & Windus)
Peter Hobbs - The Short Day Dying (Faber and Faber)
Rachel Zadok - Gem Squash Tokoloshe (Pan Macmillan)
Biography shortlist
Nigel Farndale - Haw-Haw (Macmillan)
Richard Mabey - Nature Cure (Chatto & Windus)
Alexander Masters - Stuart: A Life Backwards (Fourth Estate)
Hilary Spurling - Matisse the Master (Hamish Hamilton)
Poetry shortlist
David Harsent - Legion (Faber)
Christopher Logue - Cold Calls (Faber)
Richard Price - Lucky Day (Carcanet)
Jane Yeh - Marabou (Carcanet)
Children's book shortlist
Frank Cottrell Boyce - Framed (Macmillan)
Geraldine McCaughrean - The White Darkness (Oxford University Press)
Hilary McKay - Permanent Rose (Hodder Headline)
Kate Thompson - The New Policeman (Bodley Head)
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