AM Homes wins 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction
The Women's Prize for Fiction has been won by American author AM Holmes, denying Hilary Mantel a literary hattrick.
AM Homes has won the 2013
Women's Prize for Fiction for her sixth novel, May We Be
Forgiven
The American author A M Homes has won the 2013 Women’s Prize for Fiction,
beating Hilary Mantel, the bookies' favourite to win.
Homes, joint second favourite with Zadie Smith, won the £30,000 prize with
her sixth novel, May We
Be Forgiven, a hilariously dark exploration of the tarnished American dream.
Miranda Richardson, chair of judges, said: “Our 2013 shortlist was
exceptionally strong and our judges’ meeting was long and passionately argued,
but in the end we agreed that May We Be Forgiven is a dazzling, original,
viscerally funny black comedy – a subversion of the American dream. This is a
book we want to read again and give to our friends.”
Homes’s book has been widely praised for its opening, in which an illicit
Thanksgiving kiss sparks a hideous sequence of events, including a fatal road
accident, murderous domestic violence and a divorce, which all occur in
remarkably quick succession.
"This award is super special to me," Homes said at the prize ceremony last
night. "It's the first actual book award I've won. I've always been in awe of
this prize and I've always dreamed I would win it. More
