Global winners of Commonwealth book awards announced

The regional winners of the Commonwealth Writers' Prizes for Best Book and Best First Book were announced on March 12. Jhumpa Lahiri has been nominated for Unaccustomed Earth in the best book category. The prize is worth £1,000.

Two Canadian authors, Marina Endicott and Joan Thomas, have won awards with the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

Winners by region:
AFRICA:
• Best Book: Mandla Langa of South Africa for The Lost Colours of the Chameleon
• Best First Book: Uwem Akpan of Nigeria for Say You're One of Them
Langa prevailed over authors such as Damon Galgut (The Imposter) and Zoë Wicomb (The One That Got Away) while Akpan won over authors such as Jane Bennett (Porcupine) and Jassy Mackenzie (Random Violence).

EUROPE AND SOUTH ASIA:
• Best Book: Jhumpa Lahiri of the UK for Unaccustomed Earth
• Best First Book: Mohammed Hanif of Pakistan for A Case of Exploding Mangoes
Hanif was up against writers such as Joe Dunthorne (Submarine) and Sulaiman Addonia (The Consequences of Love) for the prize, while Lahiri beat out writers such as Chris Cleave (The Other Hand) and Salman Rushdie (The Enchantress of Florence).

SOUTH EAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC:
• Best Book: Christos Tsiolkas of Australia for The Slap
• Best First Book: Mo Zhi Hong of New Zealand for The Year of the Shanghai Shark
Tsiolkas beat out authors such as Aravind Adiga (Between the Assassinations) and Tim Winton (Breath) while Mo Zhi Hong triumphed over Adiga (The White Tiger) and Nam Le (The Boat).
The winners in each category will be announced at a ceremony in New Zealand on May 16, 2009.

CANADA AND THE CARIBBEAN REGION:
• Best Book: Marina Endicott of Canada for Good to a Fault
• Best First Book: Joan Thomas of Canada for Reading By Lightning.

Endicott won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award, for Canada and the Caribbean, for her novel Good to a Fault. The novel recounts the chaotic journey a lonely woman and her family take after a car accident. "With delicate precision, Good to a Fault tackles some of the big, eternal questions — love, mortality, God — in a deceptively modest story populated with very ordinary people brought together in extraordinary circumstances," said Michael Bucknor, chair of the judging panel for the Canada and Caribbean region, in a statement.

The winners in each category will be announced at a ceremony in New Zealand on May 16, 2009.