Robertson wins 2018 Goldsmiths Prize for ‘The Long Take’

In the UK, Robin Robertson has won the £10,000 (A$17,970) 2018 Goldsmiths Prize for The Long Take (Picador).

The prize, established in 2013, rewards British and Irish fiction which ‘breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form’.

Chosen from a shortlist of six, The Long Take follows the perspective of a D-Day war veteran named Walter who searches for a new life in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The book mixes free verse with text from notebooks and journals and includes prose flashbacks, vintage monochrome photographs and multiple fonts to explore the horrors of war as well as advertisements and signage to immerse the reader in Walter’s perspective.

Chair of judges Adam Mars-Jones praised The Long Take for being ‘a film noir verse novel full of blinding sunlight and lingering shadows, technically accomplished, formally resourceful and emotionally unsparing’.

Novelist and short story writer Nicola Barker won the prize in 2017 for her 11th work of fiction, H(a)ppy (William Heinemann). For more information about the Goldsmiths Prize, visit the website.

Category: Awards International news