Dengan penyerahan Laporan Panel Dialog Nasional Pendidikan Negara 2012 kepada Menteri Pelajaran pada 30 Ogos 2012 maka selesailah tugas saya sebagai Setiausaha Panel Dialog Nasional Pendidikan Negara. Sekarang saya mempunyai masa untuk menikmati The Tiger's Wife, novel yang berjaya menabalkan penulisnya, Tea Obreht, wanita berusia 25 tahun kelahiran Yugoslavia, sebagai pemenang anugerah Orange Prize for Fiction 2011.
Novel sulung Obreht, graduat Master of Fine Arts, Cornell University (New York), ini menjadi penunggu setia meja kerja saya sejak 3 Ogos 2012.
Pengerusi Jemaah Hakim Orange Prize for Fiction 2011, Bettany Hughes, mengungkapkan kata-kata berikut dalam majlis penyampaian anugerah kepada Obreht pada 8 Jun 2011 di London:
"The Tiger's Wife is an exceptional book and Téa Obreht is a truly exciting new talent. Obreht's powers of observation and her understanding of the world are remarkable.
By skilfully spinning a series of magical tales she has managed to bring the tragedy of chronic Balkan conflict thumping into our front rooms with a bittersweet vivacity.
The book reminds us how easily we can slip into barbarity, but also of the breadth and depth of human love.
Obreht celebrates storytelling and she helps us to remember that it is the stories that we tell about ourselves, and about others, that can make us who we are and the world what it is."
Pada kulit belakang novel ini tercatat petikan ulasan dalam Time Magazine 14 Mac 2011:
"This astounding debut novel about the former Yugoslavia in wartime is so rich with themes of love, legends and mortality that every novel that comes after it this year is in peril of falling short in comparison with its uncanny beauty."
Sudah pasti novel ini, dan penulisnya, istimewa.
Tebal: 338 muka surat.
Harga di MPH selepas diskaun 15%: RM27.10 (Hanya 8 sen semuka surat!)
