Everybody said it had been an excellent idea and had succeeded in its goal of promoting outstanding fiction by women to male and female readers. In 2005, when we were celebrating our 10th Orange Prize for Fiction – and there were many articles in the media – there was nobody who was prepared to speak against the OPF. However, once the first shortlist was announce in 1996 – and everybody saw the wonderful six books, all of which had been overlooked by the other major prizes (both from established and new writers) – opinion began to turn. However, some sections of the press were very hostile and a few authors – worried that it would suggest women writers were second class citizens in the world of literature – expressed concerns. Kate Mosse: Publishers, literary agents, booksellers and librarians thought the Orange Prize for Fiction was a good idea from the very beginning. It has been a long and happy partnership that has endured ever since.Įlena Karpos: How did the British world of literature take it in? Finally, at the end of 1995, the mobile telecommunications company Orange – who were just launching in the UK – came on board and the Orange Prize for Fiction was launched in 1996. We spent several years in research and finding a sponsor. We wanted to celebrate international fiction written by women throughout the world, to introduce outstanding work by women to male and female readers and also to use the publicity generated by the prize to sponsor a wide range of educational, literacy and research initiatives. Since, at that stage, 60 per cent of novels published were written by women, it seemed odd that women didn’t appear more regularly on the shortlists of literary prizes. Prizes are important in bringing new authors and new titles to a wider readership. Also, many male and female publishers, agents, authors and journalists commented on how there would be a big outcry if the list had been published with no men on it all! It was not deliberate, of course – the judges had just chosen the books they most enjoyed! But they had not noticed there were no women on the list. Kate Mosse: There was a shortlist for the Booker Prize in 1991 that had no female authors on it at all. So, how did the idea of the Orange Prize for Fiction come to you in the first place? And how difficult it was to put it into effect? Published in the Book Review newspaper KNIZHNAYA VITRINA in April 2006Įlena Karpos: You have been asked about it many times, of course, yet, for the majority of Russian readers it will be a new chapter, because only in recent years the authors who were nominated to the Orange in the past have at last attracted the Russian Publishing Companies’ attention, and we have got the opportunity to be acquainted with their works translated into Russian. Though Eskimo Kissing’s narrative isn’t quite rich enough to make it a 5 star read, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely like to try more of Kate Mosse’s novels. Instead, the author keeps the novel totally believable, giving us a book that’s poignant rather than melodramatic. In less skilful hands this story could easily have descended into soap opera, particularly as some of the details that emerge about the twins’ parents are quite lurid. ![]() Sam’s adoptive family is really sweet, and her father especially is a lovely character whose support and love for his daughters helps them grow into well-adjusted young women and keeps Sam grounded when the revelations about her birth parents begin to overwhelm her. Having have been in a similar situation myself, I recognised many of my own feelings in Sam’s experience and wasn’t surprised to read the author’s note at the back in which she says she had spoken to a lot of adoptees before writing the book. ![]() This is a short novel but beautifully written and very moving in places, so make sure you’ve got some tissues handy! The character of Sam is really well drawn and the emotions she experiences as she uncovers more and more facts about her past are authentic. Five years later, after tragedy strikes the family, one of the twins decides to try and trace her birth mother, beginning a journey that will bring both heartbreak and joy. It begins when twin sisters, Sam and Anna, turn thirteen and learn the few snippets of information their adoptive parents have about the circumstances of their birth. Eskimo Kissing is a coming-of-age tale about the bonds between families, whether forged by blood or shared experience.
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