Literary prizes, just like most other prizes, hold the inevitable element of surprise. The prestigious Orange Prize this year proved to be no exception to that generally acceptable rule.
The prize which is in its tenth year, is open to writings in English by women. And the hype this year, had been about British novelist Jane Gardam.
A two-time Whitbread Novel of the Year winner, Gardam was widely expected to walk away with the Orange for her book 'Old Filth', the faux memoir of an ageing QC.
Other novels in the running were 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian' by Marina Lewycka, which won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction at the Hay Literary Festival over the weekend.
Then there was 'Billie Morgan' by Joolz Denby, which is based on Morgan's experiences of riding with the Satan's Slaves biker gang in Bradford.
Also in the running was 'The Mammoth Cheese' by Sheri Holman. Her book told the story of a village in America that is transformed thanks to the the media spotlight when a woman gives birth to eleven babies.
The unexpected winner though was American writer Lionel Shriver. Her book 'We Need to Talk About Kevin', pulished by Serpent's Tail (I'll get to more of that later) recounts the childhood of Kevin Katchadourian, a boy who carries out a ruthless high school massacre in America.
Written in the form of letters from Eva to her estranged husband, the mother, Eva, examines whether her lack of maternal love turned her son into a killer.
One of the judges, broadcaster Jenni Murray, felt the moving book "acknowledges what many women worry about but never express -- the fear of becoming a mother and the terror of what kind of child one might bring into the world."
That's a sentiment that certainly resonated with the judging panel. The Orange Prize turning to be the first major literary award for Shriver and one that came for her seventh novel.
47 year old journalist and author Shriver is childless herself but that's something the Orange judging panel clearly felt didn't show in the book.
Something that sure must have come as a relief to the publisher - Serpent's Tail. The man behind this is Peter Ayrton and he took his chances with 'Kevin' after a lot of women editors in the big and established publishing houses turned it down for what they construed as the book's negative spin on motherhood.
What's even more surprising is that some of the publishing giants that had earlier said no to 'Kevin' are now vying for its rights. And as that battle for the rights continues, Serpent's Tail has slowly but surely made its mark in the publishing world by showing that it pays to take your chances.
Whether it will make the leap to the big giants is now anybody's guess, but one thing is for sure - the tiny house in London, which currently has just four employees is definitely all set to bring to print more "extravagant, outlaw voices neglected by the mainstream".
Deepika Shetty is a Producer with Prime Time Morning and takes care of the book segment 'Off The Shelf' as well.
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