Blue Bedspread on Guardian’s First Book Prize shortlist

LONDON, NOV 6: Four groups of readers from London, Brighton, Leeds and Glasgow have come up with a shortlist of six books for the Guardian First Book Award. Among them is first-time author and The Indian Express journalist Rajkamal Jha’s Blue Bedspread. The Guardian First Book Award replaces the long standing Guardian book award, and it does not select books by genre. The shortlist contains both fiction and non-fiction.

Allowing readers to decide on a literary prize shortlist is a departure from the usual practice of having a panel of judges run the prize process from start to finish. Guardian literary editor Claire Armitstead said that the "involvement of reading groups in the judging process is emerging as one of the glories of the new award". Over the last two months, the reading groups based at Border’s bookstores in the four cities read and discussed and awarded the 11 books on the original long-list points on a scale of 1 to 10. The readers’ favourite was David Mitchell’s novel Ghostwritten, a bookof nine interconnected stories.

The winner will be announced on December 2. The final choice will rest with a panel of judges which includes a famous author, a professor and Borders bookstore manager among others.