Making Sense Of The World

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It was a privilege to read the 50-odd books that were eligible for the Acorn Foundation prize for fiction this year. Entering the judging process, I expected tough negotiation and compromise; I expected to fight my corner, and when necessary, to yield with good grace. What surprised me was that, if pressed, we probably could have picked a winner in the first minutes of our initial meeting.

In the final Skype conference with the international judge Alan Taylor, our decision was likewise unanimous. One novel bubbled to the top of every list. There was no pragmatism or compromise in our decision to award Pip Adam’s The New Animals the Acorn Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.