The Citizen
in association with
30° South Publishers
and
The Write Co.
are pleased to announce
the winner of the second
Citizen Book Prize,
Hamish Pillay
for his novel
The Rainbow has no Pink.
Kerrin Cocks of 30° South says, “We are thrilled with the outcome of this year’s competition. The number of entries as well as the number of voters increased by over 50% from last year’s inaugural competition. We firmly believed that the reading public would respond positively to a book prize for first-time authors that is chosen by them—and they have.”
Entries for this year’s book prize were called for in mid-February, with submissions closing on 30 April. A shortlist of the top ten synopses was handed over to The Citizen on 13 May and the fun began. Each week, for the next ten weeks, The Citizen published one of the ten synopses and readers were called to vote on the 30° South website for each title. The votes reflect the opinions of the voters in terns of whether they believe the book has merit, whether they would borrow or buy a copy or whether the synopsis does not particularly appeal to them.
“The content of this year’s entries was far more diverse then in 2007. Last year, aside from the winning title and the occasional historical fiction, the majority of the books concentrated on the more dire aspects of life—crime, suicide, alcoholism and prostitution were common subjects. This year the synopses ranged from thrillers to fantasy novels,” says Kerrin.
Hamish Pillay described The Rainbow has no Pink as a book about the extent some people will go to, to correct human behaviour. He says it is a tale of revenge, acceptance, pain and the weight of expectation from our families and society.
The Rainbow has no Pink, the winner of the second Citizen Book Prize, in association with 30° South publishers will be in store by mid-October. Advanced reading copies will be available from the beginning of September.
The Rainbow has no Pink is available for review and Hamish is available for interview. Please contact me should you wish to receive a review copy or contact Hamish.
