Naomi Klein

“The Shock Doctrine is a brilliant, provocative, outstandingly written investigation into some of the great outrages of our time.” With these words, China Mieville, chair of the judges for the inaugural Warwick Prize for Writing, recognised Naomi Klein’s latest work as the most brilliantly complex book of the last two years. The acclaimed writer of No Logo probably doesn’t need the £50,000 cheque quite as much as some of her competitors but the kudos is considerable, and winning across disciplines must add a certain spice to the victory. Furthermore, as she commented, “At a time when the news out of the publishing industry is usually so bleak, it’s thrilling to be part of a bold new prize supporting writing, especially alongside such an exciting array of other books.”

In an article for the Guardian yesterday, judge Maureen Freely described her brief as “tracking the ‘moving edge’ of contemporary writing”. The judges’ definition of “complexity” shifted with each book that they discussed, all of which demanded careful reading. “There were times -– as with Alex Ross‘s The Rest is Noise -– when I felt as if I was crawling over a century of music with a laser, seeing how each note connected to the next.” Nonetheless, the opportunity to read and judge books on their ideas rather than their adherence to particular forms or genre made a refreshing change.

According to Katie Allen’s story for the Bookseller, the theme for the 2011 prize has already been announced. Keyboards at the ready: the topic is “colour”.