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Aminatta Forna
'Risk-taking' ... Aminatta Forna
'Risk-taking' ... Aminatta Forna

Aminatta Forna wins Commonwealth writers' prize

This article is more than 12 years old
The Memory of Love's 'immensely powerful portrayal of human resilience' takes £10,000 award

Aminatta Forna has won the Commonwealth writers' prize for her story of postwar Sierra Leone, The Memory of Love.

Forna, who was born in Glasgow and raised in Sierra Leone, said she hoped the win, announced in Sydney at the weekend, would make her country proud. "I won the Africa regional prize first, and the excitement in Sierra Leone about having a Sierra Leonean win the regional prize was just exceptional," she said, pronouncing herself "really delighted" to take the overall award, which is worth £10,000.

"We have had 20 very difficult years in Sierra Leone, so first of all in terms of making my country proud, I think the win is important, but second the whole book is really about trying to bring some peace to the country, laying to rest some of the things that have happened in the past, so for those reasons I am really delighted."

Telling the story of a British psychologist who arrives in Freetown, Sierra Leone just after the end of the country's bloody civil war, The Memory of Love weaves together his life with that of a young surgeon and a dying man. It saw off the shortlist of David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Emma Donoghue's Room and Kim Scott's That Deadman Dance, and was praised by judges for its "risk-taking, elegance and breadth".

"A poignant story about friendship, betrayal, obsession and second chances – the novel is an immensely powerful portrayal of human resilience," they said in a statement. "[It] delicately delves into the courageous lives of those haunted by the indelible effects of Sierra Leone's past and yet amid that loss gives us a sense of hope and optimism for their future. Forna has produced a bold, deeply moving and accomplished novel which confirms her place among the most talented writers in literature today."

She joins former winners of the best book prize including Andrea Levy, Ian McEwan and Zadie Smith. The awards ceremony also saw New Zealand author Craig Cliff win the best first book award, worth £5,000, for his short story collection A Man Melting, which judges called "highly entertaining and thought-provoking".

Nicholas Hasluck, chair of the judging panel, said that The Memory of Love and A Man Melting both "demonstrate the irreducible power of the written word at a time of rapid global change and uncertainty".

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