April 2nd, 2008
2008 IMPAC shortlist announced
Congratulations to Pat McCabe, who is one of eight shortlisted authors for the 2008 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. It’s the world’s largest financial literary prize (for a single work of fiction in English), with the winner scooping €100,000. The prize is voted for by libraries across the globe and it’s no mean feat making the final eight - the longlist ran to 137 books. The winner will be announced on June 12th.
The nominees:
The Speed of Light - Javier Cercas (Spanish) in translation
The Sweet and Simple Kind - Yasmine Gooneratne (Sri Lankan)
De Niro’s Game - Rawi Hage (Lebanese)
Dreams of Speaking - Gail Jones (Australian)
Let it be Morning - Sayed Kashua (Israeli)
The Attack - Yasmina Khadra (Algerian) in translation
The Woman who Waited - Andrei Makine (Russian) in translation
Winterwood - Patrick McCabe (Irish)
Link: www.impacdublinaward.ie/
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:06 am
An interesting list (mostly unknowns for me) - disappointed that John Boyne didn’t make the cut though.
Just over two months to get the list read
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:35 am
David, I’m the same. Know of Cercas and Gail Jones, but haven’t read either of them. Must get cracking…
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I’ve read Soldiers of Salamis by Cercas which to be honest, I found a chore to get through. I readan Andrei makine book ages ago but I can’t even remember it (not a good sign really is it!?) My money’s on Let it be Morning, but the greatthing about the IMPAC is you never know what’s gonna win! :p
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:26 am
I see that “The prize is voted for by libraries across the globe..” and wonder who exactly represents these libraries. The Head Librarians? The general staff of the library services? Are their nominations based on the annual borrowing figures in each nation? (which would seem democratic, although some choices of titles thereby based on populist more than literary-aesthetic considerations.) Good luck to all the shortlisted, and especially to Patrick McCabe. Only a small number of living Irish writers manage to make a decent living from their writing. Our national book buying market is small and Irish publishing is like a cottage industry.
April 6th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I’ve nominated for the last 2 years through our reader development office, all library staff were asked to nominate whatever book they liked. Last year my nomination was the only one submitted!
April 7th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Sinead, and anyone else interested:
Anne Enright and Joe O’Connor are talking to Niall McMonagle about Gulliver’s Travels at the Dublin City library on Pearse Street at 7pm this evening.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:25 am
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