Lloyd Jones was born in Lower Hutt. A highly-regarded writer working in both fiction and non-fiction, in 2007 Lloyd won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Montana Medal for Fiction and Reader’s Choice Award, and the Kiriyama Prize for his novel Mister Pip. It was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2008, Lloyd was made an Arts Laureate and received a Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement. A volume of Lloyd’s selected stories, The Man in the Shed is due out in 2009 (Penguin).
BOOKS
Biografi
Under the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, all Albanian citizens had their own biografi, a file that was maintained (and often falsified) by the secret police. The information contained in a person's biografi could have devastating effects.
When Lloyd Jones visited Albania in 1991, six years after the dictator's death, he heard rumours of a village dentist who, resembling Hoxha in looks and build, had been forced to give up his identity and become the dictator's double. Jones' quest to find Petar Schapallo gives shape not only to an intriguing traveller's tale, but a story about identity-changed, lost or falsified-in a country where identity was strictly controlled.
The Book of Fame
In 1905 a motley group of young New Zealand rugby players sets out by steamer on a journey to the other side of the world. The following year they are back, accorded a hero's welcome the like of which has never been seen in their country before. Their fame has spread before them across three continents.
Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance
In tango, there are no wrong turns. But every dance begins with a backward step. This is where Louise and Schmidt's story begins, with a backward step.
Intertwining two love stories across three generations, the Booker-shortlisted author of Mister Pip takes us to Buenos Aires, New Zealand and Sydney.
Louise and Schmidt meet in a small town in New Zealand during World War I. When locals pursue them, stirred to violence against Schmidt for his German name, he and Louise take refuge in a cave overlooking the ocean.
There, humming Argentinian songs into her ear, he teaches her the intimate rhythms of the tango - the dance that will bind them forever. Years later, in her restaurant in Wellington, Rosa, Schmidt's granddaughter, tells Lionel the tale of her grandfather's affair with Louise. And she teaches him to dance.
Mister Pip
Matilda attends the school set up by Mr Watts, the only white man on the island. By his own admission he's not much of a teacher and proceeds to educate the children by reading them Great Expectations. Matilda falls in love with the novel, strongly identifying with Pip. The promise of the next chapter is what keeps her going; Pip's story protects her from the horror of what is happening around her - helicopters menacing the skies above the village and rebel raids on the ground. When the rebels visit the village searching for any remaining men to join their cause, they discover the name Pip written in the sand and instigate a search for him. When Pip can't be found the soldiers destroy the book. Mr Watts then encourages the children to retell the story from their memories. Then when the rebels invade the village, the teacher tells them a story which lasts seven nights, about a boy named Pip, and a convict . . .
The Man in the Shed
A boy watches his mother hooked and reeled ashore by a fisherman.
A man builds a swing in the backyard to sit between his wife and her lover.
A couple gives up their seat on a bus for lovers soon to be parted.
A boy sees his mother come to life gliding on roller skates.
Lloyd Jones's The Man in the Shed is a haunting collection of stories about family and longing. Jones's extraordinary tales take conventional family situations and tilt them sideways, delivering a memorable, beautiful blend of the suburban and the surreal.