After much deliberation, our Shadow Panel have made their choice and have chosen their winner…
Julianne Pachico’s The Lucky Ones
What the panel said:
“…we were particularly impressed with the exceptional skill and creativity Pachico demonstrated in her ambitious debut collection of interlinked short stories. The Lucky Ones is a worthy shadow panel winner” – Clare Rowland, A Little Blog of Books
“We loved the scope and range of this collection of interlinked short stories, the way lead characters in one became subsidiary characters, sometimes in a different time period, in another. The writing zinged from the sense of place down to the small details, and the bravura quirkiness of some tales really drew us in. Julianne is a great talent, and I look forward to reading whatever she writes next.” – Annabel Gaskell, Annabookbel
“We were all blown away by this linked short story collection set largely in Colombia. The way the whole book fits together, with story building on story, is so sophisticated, and at the sentence level the writing is nigh on flawless.” – Rebecca Foster, Bookkish Beck
“This book, man. It knocked us all for six—there was general agreement that for an author of any age, let alone a young one, this would be an incredibly accomplished debut. Pachico’s fearlessness in tackling complex, difficult subject matter; the emotional honesty of her characters; and the sheer sentence-level excellence of the writing made this an easy decision. Do pick up a copy. You won’t regret it.”- Eleanor Franzen, Elle Thinks
We’d like to say huge congratulations to Julianne – and a huge thanks to our wonderful Shadow Panel – it’s been fascinating to read their thoughts.
The winner of the 2017 Sunday Times / Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award will be announced on 7 December 2017.
