Olivia Sudjic | |
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Born | Olivia Katarina Sudjic 1988/1989 London, England |
Alma mater | Trinity Hall, Cambridge |
Father | Deyan Sudjic |
Olivia Katarina Sudjic (born 1988/1989) [1] is a British fiction writer whose first book, Sympathy, received positive reviews in the press, from publications such as The New York Times , [2] The Guardian [3] and The New Republic . [4] In 2023, she was named on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list, compiled every 10 years since 1983, identifying the 20 most significant British novelists aged under 40. [5]
Sudjic was born in London, England. [6] She was educated at the City of London School for Girls [7] [8] and then studied English Literature at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, [9] where she won the E.G. Harwood Prize for English. [10] [11]
Sympathy revolves around a twenty-something woman visiting New York who becomes obsessed with an older woman via the social media app Instagram. The book is recognized for addressing generational differences: "A child of the age of algorithms, she notices everything but knows the value and significance of nothing." [12] As for the structure, it resembles the disjointed experience of surfing the internet, thereby reinforcing the story's focus on technology. [3]
The reviews for Sympathy were enthusiastic. The New Republic refers to the novel as "a remarkable debut, and with the arrival of such a novelist we can finally welcome our techno-dystopian future with open arms." [4] According to The New Republic , Sympathy is "The First Great Instagram Novel", dealing with obsession and smartphone technology. [13] The article goes on to say: "Rarely do novels so ostentatiously of the moment succeed so well at gesturing to the universal." [12] The novel was also mentioned in Vanity Fair , [14] The Financial Times , [15] The Spectator , [16] The Telegraph , [17] Elle , [18] Esquire , [19] Star Tribune , [20] The Times , [21] The New Yorker [22] and Vice , [23] among others.
Sudjic began writing Sympathy in 2014 while staying with her grandmother in Manhattan. [24] [9] New York City ended up becoming integral to the story, representing the protagonist's "...searching and longing for connection." [25] In the beginning, Sudjic intended to write an historical novel, but changed her mind and set the story in contemporary times. [9] Sympathy has been described as a feminist work, with Sudjic stating that the internet is male-dominated. [26] [18]
Exposure, a non-fiction work, was published by Peninsula Press, and named a book of the year for 2018 by the Irish Times, Evening Standard and White Review. [27] [28]
Sudjic's third novel Asylum Road was published in 2021 by Bloomsbury. [29] The narrator Anya is from Sarajevo, and survived the siege of that city. The novel is about her disintegration. [30] The title refers to the street in Peckham on which an asylum was located. [31]
Asylum Road was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's 2022 Encore Award [32] and the Society of Authors' 2022 Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize. [33]
In 2023, Sudjic was named on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list, compiled every 10 years since 1983, identifying the 20 most significant British novelists aged under 40. [5] [34]
Year | Title | Award | Result | Ref. |
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2018 | Sympathy | The London Magazine and Collyer Bristow Prize for Debut Fiction | Shortlist | [35] [36] |
2018 | Sympathy | Premio Salerno Libro d'Europa (Salerno Letteratura festival) | Finalist | [37] |
2022 | Asylum Road | Encore Award | Shortlist | [38] [32] |
2022 | Asylum Road | Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize | Shortlist | [33] |