2006 COMMONWEALTH WRITERS PRIZE: Regional Winners

THE regional winners of the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book and Best First Book were announced on February 6, 2006. The overall winners will be announced on March 14, 2006.

Canada and Caribbean
Best Book
Alligator (House of Anansi Press) / Lisa Moore
Best First Book
Suspended Sentences: Fictions of Atonement (Peepal Tree Press) / Mark McWatt

Southeast Asia and South Pacific
Best Book
The Secret River (Text Publishing) / Kate Grenville
Best First Book
The Harmony Silk Factory (Harper Perennial) / Tash Aw

Eurasia
Best Book
On Beauty (Hamish Hamilton) / Zadie Smith
Best First Book
Lazy Eye (Scribner) / Donna Daley-Clarke

Africa
Best Book
The Sun by Night (Africa World Press) / Benjamin Kwakye
Best First Book
Tropical Fish: Stories Out of Entebbe (University of Massachusetts Press) / Doreen Baingana

What I think: I believe the Best Book is a close contest between Orange Prize-winner Kate Grenville and Booker-shortlisted Zadie Smith. I like them both. (Smith’s début novel, White Teeth , was named the overall Best First Book in 2001.) The Best First Book should go to either Whitbread Prize-winner Tash Aw or Donna Daley-Clarke.