Thursday, March 24, 2016

Marina Lewycka in line to win Wodehouse prize for a second time

Paul Murray and Hannah Rothschild are also among nominees for award, which recognises fiction that captures the ‘comic spirit’ of Jeeves and Wooster creator


‘She never loses her love of the absurd’ … Marina Lewycka.
‘She never loses her love of the absurd’ … Marina Lewycka. Photograph: Colin McPherson
Marina Lewycka is in the running to win the UK’s top award for comic fiction for a second time, after her novel The Lubetkin Legacy was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize.
The award, for fiction which best captures the “comic spirit” of the Jeeves and Wooster creator PG Wodehouse, comes with one of the more unusual honours among literary prizes: winning authors are presented with a Gloucestershire Old Spots pig named after their novel. Lewycka, who already boasts a pig named after her debut, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, which won the prize in 2005, now makes the cut for a story set in north London in the 21st century. Judge and broadcaster James Naughtie said it was a “warming, funny story”, and that Lewycka’s “ear catches everything, and she never loses her love of the absurd”.

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