Acclaim for debut

Hastings-born author Alison Wong’s debut novel As the Earth Turns Silver, which won the 29 Janet Frame Award for Fiction and the Fiction Award winner at the 21 New Zealand Post Book Awards, has also been included on the long-list for the 211 International Impac Dublin Literary Award. As the Earth Turns Silver is about Chinese immigrants eking out a living as greengrocers in Wellington in the 19s. In a review for the Irish Times Eileen Battersby writes: “Wong has a good story to tell, and releases the information slowly; the narrative is brilliantly plotted, moving between the initially unconnected lives of the Chinese brothers and a bickering married couple heading for tragedy. There is an unusual intelligence about this subtle, crafted novel that forces one to stop and absorb the enormity of the smallest gesture.”