Tan Twan Eng beats Hilary Mantel to win £25,000 prize for historical fiction
(The Telegraph) – The 2013 Walter Scott prize has been won by the Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng for his second novel, The Garden of Evening Mists.
The Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng has won the £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for his second novel The Garden of Evening Mists.
He beat off competition from a strong shortlist, which included Hilary Mantel’s Bring up the Bodies, Rose Tremain’s Merivel and Pat Barker’sToby’s Room.
The Garden of Evening Mists, shortlisted by for the 2012 Man Booker prize, is the first novel by an overseas writer to win the four year-old prize. Last year, books by authors from the Commonwealth were eligible for the first time.
Tan travelled from his home in South Africa to receive his prize this evening from the Duke of Buccleuch, a distant relative of Sir Walter Scott, at the Brewin Dolphin Borders Book Festival in Melrose, Scotland. The award ceremony was presented by the BBC’s James Naughtie.
Commenting on the prize, the judges said: “All the authors on this year’s shortlist have written wonderful books, illuminating times and breathing life into personalities in a way that is enlightening and which brings lasting pleasure to the reader. However The Garden of Evening Mists is the book that left the deepest imprint on us.
