KEY POINTS:
First the Commonwealth Prize for Literature, then the Montana NZ Book Awards for best fiction. Now Wellington writer Lloyd Jones' novel Mister Pip continues its extraordinary roll, long-listed for the most prestigious literary award in the world, the British Man Booker Prize, worth £50,000 ($132,950).
Jones has nudged out some of the biggest guns of the international writing world, including J M Coetzee, Doris Lessing and Thomas Keneally, whose latest novels failed to make the cut. Britain's book retail giant Waterstone's is reported as describing the long list of 13 as "a giant-felling list".
Jones flew to Berlin last weekend to start a year as the Creative New Zealand writing fellow, a few days after winning the Montana. His publisher, Geoff Walker, of Penguin Books NZ, said the Booker accolade was "an incredible tribute to the book."
"If it is shortlisted, it will be the first New Zealand novel to be shortlisted since Keri Hulme's The Bone People [in 1985]. I think it would be true to say that Lloyd is feeling a little stunned by everything and taking off to Berlin for a year is a very good thing for him.
"Lloyd says Lloyd Jones the person is ecstatic but Lloyd Jones the writer isn't all that impressed. He knows that when this is all over, he still has to generate the next book.
"The book has only been published so far in Australia, New Zealand, Britain and the United States. The translation rights have been sold widely so its publication in the big ones like Germany, France, Italy and Spain won't take place until the end of the year."
Bookies in England have placed Ian McEwan as the 3/1 favourite to win the prize, for his slim novel On Chesil Beach. The Guardian's reviewer, D J Taylor, takes a different view, saying: "I shall be backing New Zealand writer Lloyd Jones' Mister Pip, a devastating projection of Great Expectations set on a war-torn Pacific island."
The Man Booker shortlist is announced on September 6 and the winner on October 16.
