Gunty wins inaugural Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize

In the UK, US author Tess Gunty has won the inaugural £5000 (A$8520) Waterstones Debut Fiction prize for The Rabbit Hutch (Oneworld), reports the Bookseller.

The Rabbit Hutch describes the lives of the residents of an affordable housing complex in a decaying Rust Belt town, and deals with the care system, urbanisation, poverty and gentrification, while focusing on one girl’s coming of age story.

Waterstones head of fiction Bea Carvalho said The Rabbit Hutch ‘truly has the feel of the next great American novel: it is an exquisite, triumphant book which at once recalls the very best of the contemporary canon while remaining fiercely original and innovative.’

Gunty said she had never seen a Rust Belt town like the one she grew up in represented in fiction. ‘As I grew up, this seemed like a good reason to set my writing—unapologetically, ecstatically—in the post-industrial Midwest,’ said Gunty. ‘Enraged by the structural mistreatment that generated so much needless violence and desperation, I began to realise that the story of my town was the story of countless towns across the Midwest, across America, across the world.’

Category: International news