Amanda Jones
11 November 2014: International best-selling romantic comedy The Rosie Project has been named the 2015 University of Canberra Book of the Year.
The UC Book Project, now in its third year, provides a novel to all commencing students, and to staff at the University – encouraging students to engage with each other irrespective of their course or background, and encouraging staff to use the novel's themes to bring the students' curriculum to life.
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UC Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker with The Rosie Project author Graeme Simsion and UC Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) Nick Klomp. Photo: Chris Davis. |
The inaugural 2013 book was Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey and this year's book was Room by Emma Donoghue.
The Rosie Project by Melbourne-based author Graeme Simsion follows Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially inept professor of genetics, who designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner.
He creates a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers and the late arrivers, but he didn't expect to meet Rosie Jarman— who possesses all these behaviours.
Dr Simsion said he was delighted The Rosie Project had been chosen as the 2015 UC Book of the Year.
"The Rosie Project has been very popular among book groups, but none as big as this! I'm excited that the selection will bring my novel to a new and diverse range of readers who will be encouraged to look into some of the issues raised in the book: difference, integrity and the foundations of relationships, and I will watch the discussion with interest," Dr Simsion said.
The Rosie Project began life as a screenplay, winning the Australian Writers Guild/Inscription Award for Best Romantic Comedy before being adapted into a novel.
It won the 2012 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript and the Australian Book Industry Award for Best Book of 2013, and has been sold in over 40 countries.
The novel was chosen for the honour by a panel of experts including movie critic and book lover Margaret Pomeranz, University of Canberra distinguished professor Jen Webb and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) Professor Nick Klomp, who envisaged the UC Book Project.
"The Rosie Project is a fantastic, contemporary novel which uses a familiar vernacular and setting, reminding our students that literature is personal and local as much as it is universal," Professor Klomp said.
"It is a very accessible novel, with a voice and plot that will entertain even those students for whom fiction is not a preferred medium; while for staff, it offers a wealth of material to draw from in teaching including evidence-based research, psychology, sociology, IT, communication and, of course, storytelling.
"We are thrilled to be giving this novel to all commencing students and to staff, and we expect that it will spark many hours of rich discussion. Other universities around the world have a freshman or common reading program, where a book is chosen each year that all commencing students read.
"The UC Book Project, first introduced in 2013, is an Australian first which adds another point of difference for students who chose to study at the University of Canberra," he added.
