Patricia Grace on Booker Prize longlist

Penguin Books (N.Z.) Limited

News Release
17 August 2001
for immediate release

Patricia Grace on Booker Prize longlist

Patricia Grace’s latest novel, Dogside Story, has reached the 2001 Booker Prize long list.

This is a particularly notable achievement given the strong selection which includes such authors as VS Naipaul, Peter Carey, Nick Hornby and Beryl Bainbridge. The booker prize winner will be announced on 17 October.

Penguin Books NZ, Patricia Grace’s publisher since the mid 1980’s, offers Patricia their warmest congratulations.

“We are thrilled for Patricia because this proves once and for all that she is a world class novelist who can hold her own against the very best anywhere. Dogside Story is a wonderful novel and it is terrific to see it receiving the overseas accolades it deserves,” says Penguin Books NZ Publishing Director, Geoff Walker.

Dogside Story is both a literary novel and a gripping page-turning read set in a Maori coastal community. Within the novel, the power of the land, the strength of the whanau, the humour and aroha of the community are life preserving factors.

In a surprise move, the judges have not included Salman Rushdie’s new novel Fury in the longlist. The judges seemed to have put a children’s book on their list for the first time with the inclusion of Philip Pullman’s novel, The Amber Spyglass.

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