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New Zealand writer Lloyd Jones, whose novel Mister Pip has just been shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker prize, reckons he's already had more awards than anyone deserves.
The novel is one of only six works short-listed for one of the literary world's most sought-after awards. Authors are selected from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth.
Asked what the prize would mean for him, Jones said it would give Mister Pip a long shelf life. Sales would take off in the United Kingdom and there would be a significant follow-through in the United States.
He said he was very happy to have made it to the shortlist, but also relieved.
"You find as many reasons why it won't make the list as reasons for it to. In the end the only way to quiet the mind is to tell yourself you don't really care, the book has already had so many moments in the sun. Then you get the call that it is through, and guess what? You care."
Jones said he never expected Mister Pip to be received the way it has been.
"Most writers I know tend to invest all their hopes and expectation into the making of their book rather than how it is received."
Mister Pip is set amid the chaos of war-torn Pacific island of Bougainville in the early 1990s. It is narrated by 13-year-old Matilda, who becomes transfixed by Pip, the character in Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations, read to her class by an eccentric teacher.
Jones will attend the ceremony on October 16 in London, where a £50,000 ($135,000) prize will be up for grabs.
- NZPA
