Orange Prize 2012

The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller was announced as the winner of the 2012 Orange Prize last night. Miller is a Latin teacher in the US and The Song of Achilles is the only first novel on the shortlist. I should confess at this point that I have not read it as yet, although I have a copy which I was looking at last night. This is the signed, numbered limited UK edition of 500 copies from Bloomsbury, which is a hardcover in pictorial boards without a dustwrapper. The inner side of the front board has a mirror like gold finish, which is striking but would mark very easily. This edition is currently available from Amazon UK for £25.50 (including UK delivery). I can imagine that many collectors would be too scared to read it – luckily plenty of cheaper editions are now available!  For the moment the UK first edition remains at its original price.

 The other shortlisted books are listed below.

Esi Edugyan	Half Blood Blues	Serpent’s Tail	Canadian
Anne Enright	The Forgotten Waltz	Jonathan Cape	Irish
Georgina Harding	Painter of Silence	Bloomsbury	British
Cynthia Ozick	Foreign Bodies	Atlantic Books	American
Ann Patchett	State of Wonder	Bloomsbury	American