The Rest Is Noise, "an intricate, kaleidoscopic, all-embracing history of 20th-century music" by the New Yorker's music critic Alex Ross, was the "clear and undisputed winner" of the £10,000 (US$ 14,661) Guardian First Book Award, the Guardian reported.
"In
some quarters this book has been seen as not having a popular appeal,"
said Claire Armitstead, chair of the judging panel and Guardian
literary editor. "Our prize--which, uniquely, relies on readers' groups
in the early stages of judging--proves that, on the contrary, there is
a huge appetite among readers for clear, serious but accessible books."
The shortlist included A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif, God's Own Country by Ross Raisin, A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz and Stalin's Children by Owen Matthews.
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The fiction longlist of 25 semifinalists for the 2008 Best Translated Book of the Year is available at the Three Percent website.