01 Jun 2012 01:42:09
Madeline Miller won the award for The Song of Achilles, a gripping and touching love story between exiled princeling Patroclus and Achilles, strong, beautiful and the son of a goddess. Miller becomes the fourth consecutive US novelist to win the prize, now in its 17th and final year of being called the Orange prize, following the mobile services company's decision to end its sponsorship earlier this month.
The novelist Joanna Trollope, chair of this year's judging panel, acknowledged that the choice of winner would raise some eyebrows. "It was in some ways a surprise to us," she said. "But it fulfils [the award's] criteria of inventiveness and originality. For my generation this might be a familiar story but I don't think it is so familiar for a lot of younger readers. Miller handles it with extraordinary lightness – and it is fresh."
Despite the inevitable tragedy of the story, Trollope said, she found it "in a curious way, uplifting. It shows what the human heart is capable of. It was the most captivating love story of all of them."
The judges took about three hours to reach their decision before agreeing, at midnight, to award the prize to Miller. It came down to two books, and the final decision was not unanimous, but there were "graceful surrenders", said Trollope, who was joined on the panel by writers Lisa Appignanesi and Natalie Haynes, journalist Victoria Derbyshire and broadcaster Natasha Kaplinsky.
Trollope described the final judging meeting as "almost painful", owing to the strength of the six books on the shortlist. Miller took the prize over bookies' favourite Foreign Bodies by 84-year-old Cynthia Ozick, State of Wonder by former Orange winner Ann Patchett, The Forgotten Waltz by Man Booker winner Anne Enright, Esi Edugyan's Booker-shortlisted Half Blood Blues and British novelist Georgina Harding's highly praised novel of postwar Romania, Painter of Silence.
"To be candid, if this had been a weaker year any one of them could have won," Trollope said. "It was an extremely strong shortlist and I hope the breadth and the adventurousness of the settings and the subject matter puts to bed for ever the idea that women only write about domestic things. They are all to be commended."
While Miller's triumph completes a four-year run for American authors, coming on the heels of wins by Téa Obreht, Barbara Kingsolver and Marilynne Robinson, Trollope was quick to dismiss the suggestion that authors from other nations should look to their laurels. "Ten or 12 years ago, it would all be Canadians," she said. "Nations have their moment in the sun; I don't know why it happens. We've got some astonishing young British writers coming up, too."
It took Miller, who is the fourth debut novelist to win the prize, 10 years to write The Song of Achilles. Born in Boston, she grew up in New York and Philadelphia, and has taught Latin, Greek and Shakespeare since graduating from Brown university. She currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she teaches Latin and writes. As well as the £30,000 prize money, she can expect a significant spike in sales as the result of her win.
There was a poignancy to the presentation ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall in London, since this year is the last the prize is awarded under the name of its outgoing sponsor, but Trollope insisted the change would be an opportunity for the prize.
"Never a door shuts but another opens. Orange have been absolutely amazing but apart from parenthood and oneself there's really no relationship that you're stuck with. It is very much 'the king is dead, long live the king.'"
