YvonneThe Orange Award For New Writers was launched in 2005, in partnership with Arts Council England. Any work of fiction can be entered, so long as it has been writen by a woman, of any age or nationality and it has been published as a book in the United Kingdom. The award is given to the best emerging female literary talent and comes with a winning bursary of £10,000. The Award for 2010 went to ‘The Boy Next Door’, written by Irene Sabatini.
Synopsis – Taken From The Author’s Website
In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, the son of Lindiwe Bishop’s white neighbour, seventeen-year-old Ian McKenzie, is arrested for a terrible crime.
A year later Ian returns home, the charges against him dropped. He is brash and boisterous, full of charm and swagger, and fascinating to fifteen-year-old Lindiwe.
She accepts a ride from him one day, despite her mother’s warnings, and something grows between them — becoming stronger and stronger in a world that wants nothing more than to divide them.
A secret that Lindiwe keeps hidden, and which Ian discovers years later, ensures that their lives will be irrevocably entwined as their country crumbles around them.
About The Author
Irene Sabatini grew up in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. She recalls spending many of her early years in the children’s section of her local library, before moving on to Harare and Allend University. It was in Bogota, Columbia, that her writing career began, whilst she was working as a teacher and studying for her Masters.
Since then, she has travelled to the Caribbean, back to her native Zimbabwe and on to Geneva, obtaining a Masters Degree from the Institute of Education in London, along the way.
‘The Boy Next Door’, is her debut novel.
