A first novel has been shortlisted for New Zealand's top literary honour.
As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong is up against works by established writers Fiona Farrell and Owen Marshall in the fiction category of this year's New Zealand Post Book Awards.
Wong took 12 years to research and write the novel, which follows the secret relationship between a Pakeha woman and a Chinese immigrant in 1920s Wellington.
"From the late nineteenth century to the 1920's, from Kwangtung, China to Wellington and Dunedin and the Battlefields of the Western Front – A story of two families.
Yung faces a new land that does not welcome the Chinese. Alone, Katherine struggles to raise her children and find her place in the world.
In a climate of hostility towards the foreign newcomers, Katherine and Yung embark on a poignant and far-reaching love affair . . . .
He came from behind and held her in his arms, told her to look again at earth and sky and water. Could she see how the world turned silver?
People died, he told her, because they were afraid. They did not go out at night on dangerous water. They did not see the earth as it turned overnight to silver."
Winners will be announced on August 27. Voting for the People's Choice Award, where readers select the recipient of a $5000 prize, opens today.
Read a review of her novel here.
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