‘An amazing enterprise’ – David Parker, MAN Asian Prize Chair director
‘Please Look After Mother’ wins ‘Shadow’ MAN Asian Literary Prize 2011
‘Please Look After Mother’ by Kyung-sook Shin (pub. Weidenfeld&Nicolson, UK/Aus; Knopf, US) has won the ‘Shadow’ MAN Asian Literary Prize for 2011.
‘Please Look After Mother’ was the stand-out choice of a team of bloggers from across three continents, who reviewed all twelve of the titles originally longlisted by the official MAN Asian Literary Prize jury.
The ‘Shadow’ jury described ‘Please Look After Mother’ as ‘a heart-warming story of family’; ‘a deceptively simple novel’; and ‘a splendid work of literary fiction.’
Chair of the ‘Shadow’ jury, Lisa Hill of ANZLitLovers.com, said: ‘It is testament to the quality of this year’s long- and shortlists that our decision was not unanimous, but ‘Please Look After Mother’ clearly prevailed overall.’
The ‘Shadow’ MAN Asian Literary Prize is entirely independent of the official MAN Asian Literary Prize, whose winner will be announced on Thursday March 15, and of MAN Group. The ‘Shadow’ Prize is intended to highlight the main Prize by broadening the discussion about the long- and shortlisted titles via the social networking community. Links to all ‘Shadow’ jury reviews and interviews can be found via http://goo.gl/LGyw4
The ‘Shadow’ jury comprised: ANZLitlovers.com; matttodd.wordpress.com; whisperinggums.wordpress.com; readramble.wordpress.com; me ; eleutherophobia.co.uk
Logo © Matt Todd. For queries about this press release contact: mark@eleutherophobia.co.uk
Not read this, but have seen it on several blogs & opinions seemed to be varied on it’s merits.
Well done to you all Stu 🙂
I’m still hoping for a different winner though 😉
judges must been same as us in choosing ,all the best stu
TBH it didn’t really grab me. Maybe it was a little too sentimental for my tastes. Having said that I haven’t read any of its opponents ……
http://www.ourbookreviewsonline.blogspot.com/2011/04/please-look-after-mother-by-kyung-sook.html
I just loved insight into korean life ,all the best stu
I must check this book out if it was voted by bloggers.
What is the “shadow” Man Booker Stu? I haven’t heard of this prize.
its our shadow panel for the man asian prize boof ,I m doinf one for foreign fiction prize as well ,all the best stu
I just love it that this book won the prize. It was heartbreaking and revealing.
me too hope we see more korean books published due to it winning ,all the best stu
I always love it when bloggers also do their own ‘thing’. I love this and let’s see how it fares in the actual prize.
we did well they matched our choice ,all the best stu
For those who have not read nor possess this wonderful novel, go to Amazon.com — there is a “Look Inside” the book that shows the first few pages. The style of writing is very interesting; second person “you do this…you do that …” for emotional distancing of a extremely painful event, a mother’s disappearance, and then the style slides in and out of traditional explication. It is smooth. It works. And it holds the readers interest. Very skillful. I can see why it won such a prize.
I wonder, if this second person style was used in the original Korean? The book is written by a woman, right? In the Korean language, I understand that there is a strong differentiation between the language as spoken by males and females.
I think so penny I follow some one on twitter that is a korean translator keep meaning to ask about this book and its translation ,all the best stu
Stu,
Thank you for the announcement. I very much enjoyed the way you organized this post, and thank you, too, for the links!
Wishing you a fruitful reading week,
Judith (Reader in the Wilderness)
welcome Judith ,all the best stu
I’m surprised, I think I have read more negative than positive reviews of this book, with the exception of yours and Fay’s. You did a great job in any case. I enjoyed watching from the sideline.
yes It is a real marmite book ,I think it is the way the book is told annoys a lot of people ,all the best stu
@Stu: Yes she won. And I’m glad that at least bloggers are able to make a better choice.
http://www.manasianliteraryprize.org/news/2012/3/15/south-korean-novelist-announced-as-first-woman-to-win-man-as.html
Congrats, to Shin though i’m new to this award.