Amazon has named Philip Hensher’s The Northern Clemency as book of the year. The book was also nominated for the Man Booker prize. If Hensher was unprepared for the amount of publicity that Man Booker nomination gave him, it’ll be nothing compared to what will happen after Amazon’s endorsement. Amazon through it’s recommendation will catapult Hensher’s book onto an international stage. It will be a shock for Hensher who has been quietly writing novels for the past decade to achieve such instant acclaim. This is his seventh novel
The book follows a northern family, from the mid seventies to the rise of Thatcherism and the turbulent political and social upheavals of the 80’s. It seems a strange book for Amazon to choose, Sheffield in 80’s doesn’t seem to me a subject that would engage Amazon’s world wide audience. But I guess that is the point, Amazon can use its might to highlight worthy books that may get overlooked because of the glut of published fiction. The book is bound to get an awful lot of attention in the future and is bound to become an instant best seller and even a modern classic.
