It is said that the British love an underdog, but that's not the only reason why I can't help warming to Rosie Alison, who, it would seem, is the only Orange Prize longlisted author not to have yet been reviewed by a single national newspaper, despite some spirited write ups by the many of us citizen journos who've bought the book and loved it.
Alison is handling this lack of PR pizzazz for her novel, The Very Thought Of You, with admirable dignity too, telling the Guardian that she is 'quietly delighted' by the lack of fanfare so far, preferring to build slowly (just as well really) than to recieve a massive buzz that might fizzle out quickly.
The Very Thought Of You is the story of a young girl torn from her family and relocated to a large Yorkshire estate during the Government's wartime evacuee programme. It's a novel of yearning, loss and mixed loyalties, combining a sweeping narrative with subtle pyschological observational that has prompted comparisons with the saintly Ian McEwan among others--what's not to love?
Meanwhile, with slightly less of the appropriately dignified spirit, Orange judge Daisy Goodwin has been bemoaning the Herculean task of ploughing through the 129 submitted novels to arrive at this year's longlist. Apparently it was something of a grimfest for Ms Goodwin, who, call us meanies, but we think might like to move over and let someone else on the panel if it's such a 'despair'.
Among the other longlisters are inevitably the Booker big hitters Misses Mantel and Waters for their superb novels Wolf Hall and The Little Stranger respectively plus Kathryn Stockett/The Help; Attica Locke/Black Water Rising; Nadifa Mohamed/Black Mamba Boy; Monique Roffey/The Woman On a Green Bicycle; Lorrie Moore/A Gate At The Stairs; Amy Sackville/Still Point; Eleanor Catton/The Rehearsal; Laila Lalami/Secret Son; Andrea Levy/Song; Sadie Jones/Small Wars; Barbara Kingsolver/The Lacuna; Clare Clark/Savage Lands; Amanda Craig/Hearts and Minds; Roopa Farooki/The Way Things Look; Rebecca Gowers/The Twisted Heart; MJ Myland/This Is How and Maria MCann/The Wilding.
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