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The Grollo Ruzzene Foundation Prize for Writing about Italians in Australia: Winner and Shortlist 2008
Judges: Robert Pascoe (Convenor), Piero Genovesi and Adriana Nelli
Winner
The winner of the 2008 Grollo Ruzzene Foundation Prize for Writing about Italians in Australia is:
Shortlist
| See Naples and DiePenelope Green
(Hachette Australia)
A welcome return to the Grollo Ruzzene shortlist by the winner of the Prize in 2006 with her account of life in contemporary Rome. In Naples Green has now taken on a more difficult city, with a more complex social environment, trying to penetrate the multiple layers of everyday Neapolitan life without the advantage of having been born there or having lived there for a long time. That brings a naivety into her relationship with a city and a people who are, by their own definition, ‘unique in the world’, and resistant to comparison. |
| Head Over Heel - WINNERChris Harrison
(Murdoch Books)
An intriguing book, very well written, well structured, entertaining and sometimes even challenging. The exploration of the relationship between two different worlds and cultures, Italy and Australia, is conducted in a manner which leaves the reader with an awareness of two worlds coming together in the challenges of everyday life without major dramas, but as natural as everyday life. The analysis is very well disguised by Harrison’s narrative and the natural flow of the story.
This book is a mixture of autobiographical narrative and travel writing, a simple romantic tale of the pursuit of love and the experiences of an Australian living abroad, which provides a delightful and often humorous account of the author’s evolving relationship with Italy as he comes to grips with everyday reality there. Harrison gives the reader some very insightful glimpses into the cultural divide between the Anglo Saxon world and the attitudes and ways of thinking that make the Italian reality distinctive and often incomprehensible to the outsider. He achieves this by ably incorporating anecdotes (without resorting to stereotyping) that provide both humour and vivid images of Italians and Italian life. |
| Antonio’s SeedMerry Watson
(Jeremiah’s Circle Publishing)
A novel concerning the difficult relationship between an immigrant Italian and an Australian, set in Australia. The peculiarity of this book is the fact that the two main characters, Antonio and Ruth, represent, right from the beginning, a rather clear mismatch between two people who are rather atypical. The writing style is simple yet full of expectancy and tension. The reader is quickly intrigued by these two mismatched individuals and the events that unfolded. In essence it is the story of failure, failure of a relationship and a failure of the migrant experience - after all it was cultural difference which led to misunderstanding and rejection and then to a marriage based on deception and resentment. Ruth and Antonio were the victims of circumstances of which they lacked understanding and therefore the ability to control. Perhaps Ruth and Antonio were just too young and naïve, too engrossed in their attraction for each other, to understand that their differences were more than skin deep. | |
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