British Yoruba author Tade Thompson has won the Arthur C Clarke award, the UK’s most prestigious prize for science fiction novels, for Rosewater, his alien invasion novel set in a future Africa. Opening in 2066, in the aftermath of an alien invasion that has left much of humanity powerless through airborne microscopic fungal spores, Rosewater is the name of a new town that forms on the outskirts of an alien biodome dropped in rural Nigeria. The alien presence has also awakened telepathic skills among select humans, dubbed “sensitives”, and the novel follows one, Kaaro, who investigates when other sensitives begin to die. Thompson, who works as a psychiatrist in the south of England, saw off competition from 124 other novels, the highest number ever submitted for the prize. Thompson received a trophy and the £2,019 prize – the winnings are adjusted annually to match the year – at a ceremony on Wednesday night in Foyles bookshop in central London.

Source: The Guardian July 17, 2019 19:52 UTC