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The 2009 Award

 

Edwin + Mathilda

Edwin + Mathilda

by Laurence Fearnley

 

 

 

Nominated by:

  • Wellington City Libraries, New Zealand

Publisher of Nominated Edition:

Penguin Group New Zealand Inc

 
the complete A-Z listing of nominated authors
ABOUT THE BOOK

I wonder why Edwin's mother left him - why his mother left and mine stayed? I mean, which is the more damaging - the mother who tells you she loves you and leaves, or the mother who calls you stupid and stays?
This beautifully written new novel by Laurence Fearnley is about finding love in the most unlikely of places. Set if the southern South Island, it describes the unusual bond formed between sixty-two-year-old photographer Edwin and twenty-two-year-old Matilda, as their relationship grows in ways neither could possibly have predicted.

I liked the look of concentration on his face when we made love. His hands moved gently over my body; it was as if he was turning the pages of some fragile book - the type of book that has tissue pages, like an old-fashioned Bible. He reminded me, too, of a child learning to read. I pictured his fingertips tracing the words on the page, his lips mouthing the sounds, so intense was his focus. 'Edwin,' I teased, 'am I a good book?'

(From Publisher).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Laurence Fearnley is the author of six novels. Her second novel, Room, was shortlisted for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2001. She has been awarded several fellowships, notably the 2004 Artists to Antarctica fellowship, the 2006 Island of Residencies fellowship in Tasmania and the 2007 Robert Burns fellowship at the University of Otago.

Based in Dunedin, she is currently working on her third book in her southern trilogy.

LIBRARIANS' COMMENTS

The story of a very unconventional relationship, that is beautifully written with realistic lovingly drawn characters.

 

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