The author of a novel shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize – and described as a ‘modern fairy tale’ – is to give a talk at Newcastle University.
Fiona Mozley will be in conversation with creative writing lecturer Dr Rachel Hewitt in the King’s Hall, Newcastle University, on 14th November.
Fiona’s debut novel Elmet depicts a violent, passionate family living in a wood on civilisation’s edges.
As well as the 2017 Booker Prize, the novel has been shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. Fiona Mozley has been shortlisted for The Sunday Times/PDF Young Writer of the Year Award 2018.
Elmet has won a Somerset Maughan Award and the Polari Prize.
The Economist described Elmet as ‘a quiet explosion of a book, exquisite and unforgettable’ while The Times Literary Supplement called the novel a ‘cleverly constructed rural gothic fable’ and ‘a marvellous achievement’.
According to The Sunday Times, the book has aspects of a ‘pastoral idyll, political expose, family saga and horror tale’ and reads ‘like a traditional children’s story that turns into a gangster film: Hansel and Gretel meets The Godfather.’
Staff and students at Newcastle University might already be familiar with Elmet as 3,000 copies of the novel have been made available around the university as part of the One Book project.
This programme, run by the Booker Prize Foundation, encourages students from all disciplines to read high-quality works of contemporary literary fiction.
The director of the Newcastle Centre for Literary Arts, Professor Sinead Morrisey, said, “We’re delighted to host another One Book event this year, and especially pleased to showcase such a riveting, dark, thrilling tale, beautifully crafted, by one the UK’s most exciting new voices.”
(This article’s featured image is courtesy of Pedro Ribeiro Simoes from Flickr Creative Commons.)
