Denis Hirson Shortlisted for The Commonwealth Book Prize 2012 for The Dancing and Death on Lemon Street

Just released from Jacana:

South African Writer Denis Hirson’s first novel The Dancing and the Death on Lemon Street has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize 2012.

 The Dancing and the Death on Lemon Street is set in the 1960s in South Africa. It is a beautifully crafted, musical story, which is as much about seeing how people lived at that time as it is about desire, loneliness and the desperate, blind need for revenge.

Writers from around the world have been shortlisted for the prize in anticipation of becoming a regional winner on 22 May and ultimately competing for overall winner which will be announced at Hay Festival on 8 June. A regional winner for each prize will be awarded in five regions: Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, Caribbean, and the Pacific.

Past Winners in the African Region include South Africa writer  Mandla Langa’s The Lost Colours of the Chameleon (2009), The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna from Sierra Leone (2011) and the highly commended Happiness is a four-letter word by South African writer Cynthia Jele (2011)

Read more here: http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2012/04/25/shortlists-announced-for-2012-commonwealth-book-prize-and-commonwealth-short-story-prize/