The 17th Annual Warrick Book of the Year Awards
2002 Winners
Wait! Don't buy that Christmas pressie just yet. Just when you were going to opt for the anonymity of the book voucher the 17th Annual Warrick Book of the Year Awards are here. No Prizes, just heaps of kudos for those lucky enough to make the cut!
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| Alain De Botton's
'The Art of Travel' merges philosophy and travel writing just as you might
like to see it. Taking various philosophers and their reflections on travel,
De Botton follows their footsteps as he explores the philosophical basis for
travelling and staying at home. The chapter on Wordsworth alone is worth the
price of the book. Maybe this isn't highbrow philosophy, maybe it's tame
travel writing with no jungles or crocodiles to tame.
Read a Nasty Little Parody |
Is this fiction
or non-fiction? Is this memory, re-creation or history? One critic called
his work 'genre-defying'. Sebald has been blurring the boundaries for a while with
beautiful elegaic books like 'The Rings of Saturn', 'Vertigo' and 'The Emmigrants'
but this sadly will be seen as his masterpiece. Sadly, because he was killed
earlier this year in a car accident and all that writing that may have been,
wont be. 'Austerlitz' can't be described, in that you don't quite know
what's going on, let along how each sentence works. But work it does. Spike Magazine calls this novel 'mesmerising'. Nice word for it. Read the Last Interview with Sebald before his death. The Guardian PROFILES Sebald. NY TImes OBITUARY |
Kevin Hart has
been at the forefront of Australian poetry for such a long time that it's
hard to think of him as a fresh voice. But this book sounds fresh and the
new poems merge well with old favorites from early books. I was at Kevin's
last Australian reading at the Water Rat Hotel just before he left to live
and work in the USA and the poems sound great read aloud. Not just a
university poet. Kevin Hart PROFILE An INTERVIEW with Hart from Cordite Magazine Another INTERVIEW where Hart talks about his beginnings as a poet, beginning with a love of Shelly. |
Highly Commended
Fiction: Andrea Barrett's 'The Voyage of the Narwhal',
Non-Fiction: Peter Rose 'Rose Boys', Les Carloyn's 'Gallipoli' Winston Churchill's six volume History of the Second World War, Jon Stallworthy's biography of Louis Macniece, Roger McDonald's 'The Tree in Changing Light'
Poetry: Paul Kane's 'Drowned Lands, Paul Muldoon's 'Hay', Robert Gray's 'afterimages'
The Warrick Book of the Year List is (C) 2002
