Shaun de Waal
Ken Barris has won the R50 000 M-Net Book Prize in the English category for his novel The Jailer’s Book, published by Kagiso.
The win was somewhat unexpected by the author, who said, “Iwas surprised – and grateful for the acknowledgement, bearing in mind how long it took to get the book published.”
The book, the story of a prison warder under the apartheid regime, was written six years ago, and was rejected over 25 times. “Istopped counting between 25 and 30,” said Barris. His new novel, Evolution, will be published in September by Struik’s Zebra imprint, which has not published fiction until now.
The Jailer’s Book will hopefully now receive the attention it deserves -and a better bookshop presence than it has hitherto been granted.
The Barris win was slightly surprising to those -like myself, and Iwas a judge -who thought that this dense, complex, highly literary novel, with little in the way of feel-good content, might be too far from the model of popular, accessible fiction recommended in the guidelines given to judges.
But, in the judging process, it became clear that it had the support of the majority of the five judges, though it faced strong challenges from Achmat Dangor’s book Kafka’s Curse and Pamela Jooste’s Dance with a Poor Man’s Daughter.
The other winners were Piet van Rooyen for Die Olifantjagters (Afrikaans); MJMngadi for Asikho Ndawo Bakithi (Nguni languages); and Peter Tseole for Kgori e Bona Lee (Sotho languages). Merit awards were given to Gertrude Siphiwe Shabangu in the Tsonga category and Azwianewi Elvis Maisha in the Venda category.