Annal:2005 Kiriyama Prize for Fiction
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Kiriyama Prize in the year 2005. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
Maps for Lost Lovers: A Novel
- 2005 Kiriyama-Fiction winner
- 2006 IMPAC Dublin shortlist
- Score: 16.55
Jugnu and his lover, Chanda, have disappeared.
Though unmarried, they had been living together, embracing the contemporary mores of the English town where they lived but disgracing themselves in the eyes of their close-knit Pakistani community. Rumors about their disappearance abound, but five months go by before anything certain is known. Finally, on a snow-covered January morning, Chanda’s brothers are arrested for the murder of their sister and Jugnu.
Shock and disbelief spread through the community, and for Jugnu’s brother, Shamas, and his wife, Kaukab, it is a moment that marks the beginning of the unraveling of all that is sacred to them. As the novel unfolds over the next twelve months, we watch Kaukab struggle to maintain her Islamic piety as the effects of the double murder prove increasingly corrosive to the life of her family.
The Sari Shop: A Novel
- 2005 Kiriyama-Fiction finalist
- Score: 6.55
Ramchand, a tired shop assistant in Sevak Sari House in Amritsar, spends his days patiently showing yards of fabric to the women of “status families” and to the giggling girls who dream of dressing up in silk but can only afford cotton.
When Ramchand is sent to show his wares to a wealthy family preparing for their daughter’s wedding, he is jolted out of the rhythm of his narrow daily life. His glimpse into a different world gives him an urgent sense of possibility. And so he attempts to recapture the hope that his childhood had promised, arming himself with two battered English grammar books, a fresh pair of socks, and a bar of Lifebuoy soap. But soon these efforts turn his life upside down, bringing him face to face with the cruelties on which his very existence depends.
War Trash: A novel
- 2005 PEN-faulkner winner
- 2005 Kiriyama-Fiction finalist
- 2005 Pulitzer–fiction finalist
- Score: 22.55
War Trash, the extraordinary new novel by the National Book Award–winning author of Waiting, is Ha Jin’s most ambitious work to date: a powerful, unflinching story that opens a window on an unknown aspect of a little-known war—the experiences of Chinese POWs held by Americans during the Korean conflict—and paints an intimate portrait of conformity and dissent against a sweeping canvas of confrontation.
Set in 1951–53, War Trash takes the form of the memoir of Yu Yuan, a young Chinese army officer, one of a corps of “volunteers” sent by Mao to help shore up the Communist side in Korea. When Yu is captured, his command of English thrusts him into the role of unofficial interpreter in the psychological warfare that defines the POW camp.
Taking us behind the barbed wire, Ha Jin draws on true historical accounts to render the complex world the prisoners inhabit—a world of strict surveillance and complete allegiance to authority. Under the rules of war and the constraints of captivity, every human instinct is called into question, to the point that what it means…
- 2005 Kiriyama-Fiction finalist
- Score: 6.55
He stood naked under a raining sky…elated, as the rain coursed through his naked body. It whipped down on him, pounding his shoulders, massaging them. He bent down and took the pouring rain on his back. He straightened and raised his face to the sky. Then threw his head back, and let the water flow down his parched throat till the thirst he had felt all day dissolved. The rain washed out the layered dirt of his body, streamed and rinsed his hair. He felt light and cleansed.
This English translation of a contemporary Tamil classic captures a world that is virtually unknown outside the Tamil village—the layered and complex inner world of dalit “untouchables”, who struggle to hold their own in a context of brutal injustice.
Set in the late 1960s, Seasons of the Palm tells the story of Shortie and his friends—Tallfellow, Stumpleg, Belly and Matchbox—”untouchable” chakkili children who herd goats for the gounder caste landlords.
- 2005 Kiriyama-Fiction finalist
- Score: 6.55
Billy Flower lives in the small mainly Maori town of Meridian. The fact he is irresistible to women is borne out by his twelve daughters, known about town as the Flower girls, all to different mothers.
Grace is Gone centres on Billy’s daughter Cherry, who has returned from overseas to Meridian after the break-up of her marriage to Bax, a British photojournalist. He’ll be following her home soon, but for the moment Cherry has returned alone to lose herself in the loving world of her family. Then there’s her old childhood friend Grace; she died some years ago, but that doesn’t stop her putting in regular appearances throughout the novel.
Grace is Gone, with its sprawling cast of characters, explores the relationships of an extended family of Maori women. Spot-on dialogue and lyrical description combine to create a novel that is richly subversive and funny as hell.
