Fugitive Pieces picked by teen readers panel
Celebrated novel tops list of Orange Prize winners
Last Updated: Tuesday, June 8, 2010 | 10:36 AM ET
CBC News
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Fugitive Pieces, the bestselling, award-winning novel by Canadian author Anne Michaels, has earned yet another honour — this time chosen by a panel of teens.
On Monday, members of a British youth panel named Fugitive Pieces as their favourite Orange Prize-winning novel as part of this year's celebrations surrounding the literary honour's 15th anniversary.
"It means more than I can say that Fugitive Pieces has been chosen by the Orange Prize Youth Panel," Michaels said in a statement.
"Fugitive Pieces is a discussion of history, a serious enquiry into events and their consequences; what love makes us capable of, and incapable of. And it is a discussion of the deepest responsibilities of memory. That these questions have been embraced by the minds and hearts of young readers — the youth that is taking its place in the world — is utterly hopeful. I could not wish for a more meaningful honour."
A six-member panel of teens chose Fugitive Pieces, which won the Orange Prize in 1997, over five other past winners on a short list, including A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore (1996 winner), When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant (2000 winner), Small Island by Andrea Levy (2004 winner), On Beauty by Zadie Smith (2006 winner) and Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2007 winner).
The Duchess of Cornwall invited the panel to have their final discussions at Clarence House.
List of novels sparks 'passionate' debate
"The debate was lively, focused, passionate — everything that we had hoped for — and wonderful that their final choice should be one of our earliest winners, proving — if proof we needed — that literature of the highest quality speaks beyond its time and context," said Orange Prize co-founder and honorary director Kate Mosse.
Established in 1995, the £30,000 Orange Prize (about $44,000 Cdn) celebrates a work of English-language fiction by a female author, regardless of nationality or place of residence.
The latest winner will be announced on Wednesday.
Published in 1996, Fugitive Pieces was the Michaels' novel debut. Along with the Orange Prize, its accolades included the Toronto Book Award, the Guardian First Book Award and the Trillium Book Award. It was also adapted into a film that opened the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.
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