http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/stephen-burke-s-the-good-italian-shortlisted-for-historical-novel-award-1.2254594
Stephen Burke: his novel, The Good Italian, is set in the Italian
colony of Eritrea in 1935, with Mussolini’s pillaging of Africa as its
backdrop
Thu, Jun 18, 2015, 15:33
Stephen Burke’s The Good Italian shortlisted for historical novel award
The Historical Writers’ Association announces Debut Crown Award shortlist
Stephen Burke’s The Good Italian is one of six books on the shortlisrt
for this year’s Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown Award in
new historical fiction.
The other shortlisted titles are: The Spring of Kasper Meier by Ben
Fergusson; Wake by Anna Hope; The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia
Hodgson; The Winter Pilgrims by Toby Clements; and The Strangler Vine
by MJ Carter.
“It’s a testament to the incredible talent of these authors that we
couldn’t narrow the shortlist down to merely five books,” said
association chairwoman Manda Scott. “We were captivated by their
stories, thrilled by their plots and loved their characters. It is
going to be a very hard task to pick a winner. The Debut Crown
competition is such a great opportunity for us to showcase the wealth
of authors who are writing wonderful new historical fiction.”
Burke, a Dublin filmmaker now living in Sardinia, has already been
shortlisted in the historical romance category of the 2015 Romantic
Novel Awards. His novel, The Good Italian, is set in the Italian
colony of Eritrea in 1935, with Mussolini’s pillaging of Africa as its
backdrop. The book’s lonely narrator, harbour master Enzo Secchi,
begins a morally questionable relationship with a local woman, Aatifa,
that brings trouble for both parties when Italy forbids such liaisons.
Burke was initially drawn to the history of Eritrea and its people as
he saw similarities to Ireland’s colonial past. “But as I researched,
I was intrigued by the fact that Mussolini had criminalised
relationships between Italians and Eritreans,” he says. “Forbidden
love has been the basis for so many works from Romeo and Juliet, Anna
Karenina, The Great Gatsby, all the way to The English Patient and
Twilight. I chose a love story as the spine of my book because it had
a real historical foundation.”
Kevin Gildea, reviewing The Good Italian in The Irish Times, wrote:
“any reservations are lost in the propulsion of the powerful
narrative. It’s a really good book, which features excellent
storytelling and rounded characters to really care about. It is a book
with film written all over it.”
The £2,000 Debut Crown Award will be given to the winning author
during the 2015 Harrogate History Festival, which takes place in
October.
Received on Thu Jun 18 2015 - 13:06:45 EDT