Awards

• Long-listed for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2011
• Long-listed for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2011.
• Short-listed for Commonwealth Writers Prize, Best Book, South East Asia and Pacific 2011
• Short-listed for Haus der Kulturen der Welt, International Literature Award 2013 (Germany)
• Shortlisted for Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book - SE Asia and South Pacific 2011.

Overview

A woman washes ashore in Sicily. She has come from North Africa to find her son, taken from her when he was just days old by his father and stolen away to Berlin. With nothing but her maid's uniform and a knife stashed in a plastic bag, she relies on strangers- some generous, some exploiting-to guide her passage north. These strangers tell of their encounters with a quiet, mysterious woman in a blue coat-each account a different view of the truth, a different truth. And slowly these fragments of a life piece together to create a spellbinding story of the courage of a mother and the versions of truth we create to accommodate our lives. Haunting and beautiful, Hand Me Down World is simply unforgettable.

Full Product Details

9781921758799

Table of Contents

Reviews

'... a compelling narrative and an absorbing (and sometimes uncomfortable) disquisition on relative morality and justice.' Financial Times 'This novel is remarkable on every level...It is a piece of narrative brilliance in its construction. And is compelling in a new, quiet and beguiling way. Jones was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his previous novel, Mister Pip, and he is sure to win fans and accolades for this one.' Sunday Tasmanian 'Lloyd Jones has plotted a fine and moving story with enormous compassion, emotional depth and tender insight into humanity.' Sunday Telegraph 'It would be difficult to think of another novelist quite as original or fearless as 55-year-old New Zealand author Lloyd jones. A writer of truly international sensibility ... Lloyd Jones's novel is freshly minted, unsettling and unsentimental.' The Monthly 'New Zealand writer Lloyd Jones is a master storyteller ...' Weekend Australian 'Lloyd Jones's Hand Me Down World is a rich and subtle exploration of a refugee experience; it asks great questions about the nature of both longing and belonging.' -- Michael McGirr Age 'Jones is a daring writer who can be relied on to ignore expectation, and is becoming one of the most interesting, honest and thought-provoking novelists working today.' Guardian UK 'superbly disconcerting...[a] masterful, prismatic piece of storytelling.' Independent UK

'superbly disconcerting...[a] masterful, prismatic piece of storytelling.' * Independent UK * 'Jones is a daring writer who can be relied on to ignore expectation, and is becoming one of the most interesting, honest and thought-provoking novelists working today.' * Guardian UK * 'Lloyd Jones's Hand Me Down World is a rich and subtle exploration of a refugee experience; it asks great questions about the nature of both longing and belonging.' -- Michael McGirr * Age * 'New Zealand writer Lloyd Jones is a master storyteller ...' * Weekend Australian * 'It would be difficult to think of another novelist quite as original or fearless as 55-year-old New Zealand author Lloyd jones. A writer of truly international sensibility ... Lloyd Jones's novel is freshly minted, unsettling and unsentimental.' * The Monthly * 'Lloyd Jones has plotted a fine and moving story with enormous compassion, emotional depth and tender insight into humanity.' * Sunday Telegraph * 'This novel is remarkable on every level...It is a piece of narrative brilliance in its construction. And is compelling in a new, quiet and beguiling way. Jones was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his previous novel, Mister Pip, and he is sure to win fans and accolades for this one.' * Sunday Tasmanian * '... a compelling narrative and an absorbing (and sometimes uncomfortable) disquisition on relative morality and justice.' * Financial Times *

Author Information

Lloyd Jones is one of New Zealand's best known contemporary writers. He has published essays and children's books but his best known works include the novels The Book of Fame, winner of numerous literary awards, Biografi, a New York Times Notable Book, Choo Woo, Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance, Paint Your Wife, Hand Me Down World and the phenomenally successful Mister Pip, winner of the 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Montana Medal for Fiction and the Kiriyama Writers' Prize. Mister Pip was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007. He lives in the Wairarapa.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available