fiction matters 2016

44 Pages·2016·1.91 MB·English

The newsleTTer of The InTernATIonAl DUBlIn lITerArY AwArD
FICTION MATTERS
no.22 – february 2016
The CompleTe lIsT

of elIgIBle TITles
2016
SHORTLIST ANNOUNCEmENT 12 April WINNER ANNOUNCEmENT 9 June
www.dublinliteraryaward.ie
Harvest by Jim Crace is the winner of the 20th Award!
The 2015 winner Announcement took place in the round room
of the mansion house, Dublin on 17th June 2015
left to right; margaret Hayes, Dublin City librarian; Jim Crace, winner of the 2015 award; lord mayor of Dublin and patron of the Award,
Christy Burke; Owen Keegan, Chief executive, Dublin City Council.
The International DUBlIn literary Award (formerly ImpAC
Dublin) is presented annually for a novel written in english or
translated into english. The award aims to promote excellence
in world literature and is sponsored by Dublin City Council, the
municipal government of Dublin. The award is now in its 21st year.
nominations are submitted by library systems in major cities
throughout the world.
2 www.dublinliteraryaward.ie
Kate Harvey from picador – publishers of Harvest – is presented with a Jane Alger, Director, Dublin UnesCo City
Dublin Crystal Bowl by Owen Keegan, Chief executive, Dublin City Council, with of literature, master of Ceremonies.
Jim Crace, right.
Jim Crace, pictured with Alessandra mariani, Biblioteca margaret Hayes, Dublin City librarian, pictured here with
nazionale di roma, Italy, as she is presented with a scroll by the Kantawan magkunthod, winner of the Thai Young writers
lord mayor, Christy Burke, in recognition of library participation competition, organised by the Irish embassy in malaysia.
worldwide.
Congratulations to the nominators of Harvest,
Universitätsbibliothek Bern, switzerland
and leroy Collins leon County public library
system, Tallahassee, UsA.
left to right: Gabriela Scherrer Bern, Nick Landolt Bern,
Donna Cirenza Tallahassee.
“we were delighted that Harvest was the “This was so much fun for me and I am “Harvest details the unravelling of life as
winner of the 2015 award. The novel struck over the moon that our nomination won. changes creep or rush upon us. This book
us as very imaginative, roaming widely To hear the author thank the library in led me to read Jim Crace’s previous novels.
across epochs and cultures. we have been his speech was exciting.” I think his keen, observant eye gives
nominating novels for more than 10 years readers wonderful books.”
and are looking forward to participating in
the process again.”
www.dublinliteraryaward.ie 3
The launch of the 2016 International DUBlIn literary Award,
Dublin City library and Archive, 9th november 2015
margaret Hayes, left, Dublin City librarian and Ardmhéara, Críona Ní Dhalaigh, patron, celebrate Dublin City Council’s sole sponsorship
of the award and change of name to The International DUBlIn literary Award
Irish authors nominated for the 2016 award attend the launch. left to right Liz Nugent, mary Costello, Sebastian Barry, Joseph
O’Connor, Audrey magee and Eibhear Walshe. The longlist also includes Colm Tóibín.
members of the 2016 Judging panel left to right Juan Pablo Villalobos, Carlo Gébler, Ian Sansom, meaghan Delahunt, Judge Eugene
Sullivan, non-voting chair and margaret Hayes, Dublin City librarian. The 2016 judging panel also includes Iglika Vassileva.
4 www.dublinliteraryaward.ie
The King journalist, Jessica Keith, is assigned to Song of the Shank 2
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by Kader Abdolah cover the mysterious murder. something by Jeffery renard Allen 1
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Translated from the Dutch by unexpected happens when she meets a E
Nancy Forest-Flier British numerologist, professor Aaron nomInATeD BY: L
pikes peak library District, IG
Barone at a seminar in the University of
I
nomInATeD BY: Colorado springs, UsA B
london. They suddenly become fugitives L
DThee B nibeltiohtehrelaenkd esindhoven, when another murder takes place at his At the heart of E T
home in hampstead. The church is trying to this remarkable I
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cover up the murder to keep their interests novel is Thomas L
It is the nineteenth E
guarded. But the utmost of all secrets greene wiggins, S
century and the
cannot be kept forever. a nineteenth-
kingdom of persia
century slave
is at a turning Nazehran Jose Ahmad is a malaysian
and improbable
point. when a author born in Kelantan in 1980. he has
musical genius
young King, shah published nine books, which include three
who performed
naser, takes to novels in malay and one novel translated
under the name
the throne he to english. his five children’s books have
Blind Tom.
inherits a medieval, been reprinted several times and received
Song of the Shank
enchanted world. good reviews from malaysian readers.
opens in 1866 as Tom and his guardian
But beyond the The Michelangelo Code is his first english-
struggle to adjust to their fashionable
court, the greater translation novel with Authorhouse UK.
apartment in the city in the aftermath
forces of colonisation and industrialisation he now lives in Johor Bahru, malaysia.
of riots that had driven them away a few
close in. The shah’s grand vizier sees only
years before. But soon a stranger arrives
one solution – to open up to the outside An Unnecessary Woman
who intends to reunite Tom with his now-
world, and to bring persia into modernity. by rabih Alameddine
liberated mother.
But the shah’s mother fiercely opposes the
As the novel ranges from Tom’s
vizier’s reforms and sets about poisoning nomInATeD BY:
boyhood to the heights of his performing
her son’s mind against his advisor. The public library of Cincinnati & hamilton
career, the inscrutable savant is buffeted
with bloody battles, intrigue and County, UsA
by opportunistic teachers and crooked
extraordinary characters, The King brings Cleveland public library, UsA
managers, crackpot healers and militant
a historical moment brilliantly to life. los Angeles public library, UsA
prophets. Jeffery renard Allen blends
reading as fairy tale and shedding light on
Aaliya sohbi history and fantastical invention to bring to
a pivotal period in history.
lives alone in her life a radical cipher, a man who profoundly
Kader Abdolah was born in Iran in 1954. Beirut apartment, changes all who encounter him.
In1988, at the invitation of the United surrounded by
Jeffery Renard Allen is the author of
nations, he arrived in the netherlands as stockpiles of books.
the novel Rails Under My Back, the story
a political refugee. Kader Abdolah now godless, fatherless,
collection Holding Pattern, and two
writes in Dutch and is the author of several childless, and
collections of poetry. raised in Chicago
novels, including My Father’s Notebook and divorced, Aaliya
and now living in new York, he teaches at
two collections of short stories, as well as is her family’s
Queens College and in the writing program
works of non-fiction. “unnecessary
at the new school.
appendage.” every
The michelangelo Code year, she translates
by nazehran Jose Ahmad a new favourite book into Arabic, then The Zone of Interest
stows it away. The thirty-seven books that by martin Amis
Translated from the Malay by Anis Mansor
Aaliya has translated over her lifetime have
nomInATeD BY:
nomInATeD BY: never been read – by anyone.
The state library of south
The national library of malaysia, In this breathtaking portrait of
Australia, Adelaide
Kuala lumpur a reclusive woman’s late-life crisis,
winnipeg public library, Canada
readers follow Aaliya’s digressive mind
when the
as it ricochets across visions of past There was an old
chief prefect of
and present Beirut. Colorful musings on story about a king
archives is found
literature, philosophy, and art are invaded who asked his
mysteriously
by memories of the lebanese Civil war and favourite wizard
murdered in the
Aaliya’s own volatile past. As she tries to to create a magic
Vatican secret
overcome her aging body and spontaneous mirror. This mirror
Archives, it
emotional upwellings, Aaliya is faced with didn’t show you
unleashes a secret
an unthinkable disaster that threatens to your reflection.
that has been safely
shatter the little life she has left. Instead, it showed
buried for two
you your soul – it
thousand years. But Rabih Alameddine is the acclaimed author
showed you who
a question arises of the novels An Unnecessary Woman, The
you really were.
from the dead: the victim was a follower of Hakawati; I, The Divine; Koolaids; and the
But the king couldn’t look into the mirror
the long-lost religious group, the Cathars, short story collection, The Perv. he divides
without turning away, and nor could his
a group of medieval Christians who believe his time between Beirut and san francisco
courtiers. no one could.
they were the heirs of the original teaching and was a 2002 guggenheim fellow.
what happens when we discover who
of Jesus. A renowned Daily Telegraph
we really are? And how do we come to
www.dublinliteraryaward.ie 5
SS terms with it? fearless and original, And with each letter, wang feels the In a europe without
EE
LL The Zone of Interest is a violently dark watcher in the shadows growing closer borders, where
ITTIT love story set against a backdrop of social norms
E TLE unadulterated evil, and a vivid journey Susan Barker grew up in east london. have become
LB into the depths and contradictions of the while writing The Incarnations she spent fragile, a son
BGI
GILI human soul. several years living in Beijing, researching must confront the
LI6 E martin Amis is the author of twelve imperial and modern China. she lives sins of his father
E1 in london. and grandfather,
16 20 previous novels, the memoir Experience, and invent new
0 two collections of stories and six
2 strategies for
collections of non-fiction, most recently The Temporary Gentleman
survival.
The Second Plane. he lives in new York. by sebastian Barry
A young boy
nomInATeD BY: grows up with a loving father who has little
Cairo redbridge libraries london, UK respect for the law. They are always on
by louis Armand the run, and the boy is often distraught to
Jack mcnulty
leave behind new friendships. Because he
nomInATeD BY: is a ‘temporary
cannot go to school, his anarchistic father
městská knihovna Třinec, Czech republic gentleman’, an
gives him an unconventional education
Irishman whose
what do a crashed intended to contradict as much as possible
commission in the
satellite, a string the teachings of his own father, a preacher
British army in
of bizarre murders and a pervert. Ten years later, when the boy
the second world
and a time-warp is entering adulthood, he tries to conform
war was never
conspiracy have in to the demands of ordinary life, but the
permanent. In 1957
common? lessons of the past thwart his efforts, and
he urgently sets out
welcome questions about his father’s childhood
to write his story.
to Cairo, where cannot be left unanswered.
he cannot take one
the future’s just a
step further without looking back at all that Jonas T. Bengtsson has published two
game and you’re
has befallen him. previous novels: his 2005 literary debut,
already dead.
he is an ordinary man but he has seen Amina’s Letters, winner of the Danish
extraordinary things. he has worked and Debutant Award and Bg Bank first Book
Louis Armand is a writer and visual artist
wandered around the world – as a soldier, Award; and Submarino, the film adaptation
who has lived in prague since 1994. he
an engineer, a Un observer. he had a of which took the 2010 nordic Council film
has worked as an editor and publisher,
strange and tumultuous marriage. mai prize. he lives in Copenhagen.
and as a subtitles technician at the Karlovy
Kirwan was a great beauty but an elusive
Vary film festival and is an editor of VlAK
and mysterious figure too. Jack shared his
magazine. he is the author of six novels, Above the East China Sea
life with her, but in time she slipped from
including Cairo, Breakfast at Midnight, by sarah Bird
his grasp.
Menudo and Clair Obscur.
A heart-breaking portrait of one man’s nomInATeD BY:
life – of his demons and his lost love – richland library Columbia, UsA
The Incarnations The Temporary Gentleman is, ultimately,
okinawa, present
by susan Barker a novel about Jack’s last bid for freedom,
day: luz, a teenage
from the savage realities of the past and
nomInATeD BY: military brat, has
from himself.
Timaru District libraries, new Zealand moved to the
island’s Us Air
Beijing, 2008, Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in
force base with her
the olympics are 1955. his novels and plays have won
mother, who hopes
coming, but as numberous awards. he also had two
that the move will
taxi driver wang consecutive novels, A Long Long Way and
reconnect them
circles the city’s The Secret Scripture, shortlisted for the
with the okinawan
congested streets, man Booker prize. he lives in wicklow
branch of their
he feels barely with his wife and three children.
family – and help
alive. his daily
them heal from the death of luz’s beloved
grind is suddenly
A Fairy Tale older sister.
interrupted when
by Jonas T. Bengtsson This is an island where departed
he finds a letter in
Translated from the Danish by spirits mingle with the living, and
the sunshade of his
Charlotte Barslund interwoven with luz’s narrative is the story
cab. someone is watching him. someone
of an okinawan girl, Tamiko Kokuba, who
who claims to be his soulmate and to have nomInATeD BY:
in 1945 was plucked from her high school
known him for over a thousand years. wojewódzka Biblioteka publiczna im.
and trained to work in the Imperial Army’s
other letters follow, taking wang marszałka Józefa piłsudskiego w Łodzi,
horrific cave hospitals. Above the East China
back in time: to a spirit-bride in the Tang poland
Sea tells the entwined stories of
Dynasty; to young slaves during the mongol
two lives connected across time by the
invasion; to concubines plotting to kill the
shared experience of loss, the strength
emperor; to a kidnapping in the opium
of an ancient culture, and the power
war; and to red guards during the Cultural
of family love.
revolution.
6 www.dublinliteraryaward.ie
Sarah Bird, winner of the 2014 Texas of troubling events. now, three years into loosely based on 22
00
writer Award is the author of The Yokota their secluded country life, gus works the little-known 11
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Officers Club and eight other novels. daily on the marriage she nearly lost, 1859 mexican E E
she grew up on air force bases around discovers new inspiration for her art, and invasion of the LL
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the world and now makes her home in contemplates the mysteries of a childhood United states,
II
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Austin, Texas. tragedy. But this quiet, healing rhythm is Carmen Boullosa’s LL
forever shattered one hot July day when a newest novel Texas: EE
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stranger moves into the abandoned house The Great Theft is II
The Strays TT
next door and crosses more boundaries a richly imagined LL
by emily Bitto EE
than just those between their lands. Life evocation of the SS
nomInATeD BY: Drawing is a fierce, honest, and moving volatile Tex-mex
The state library of Queensland, portrait of a woman grappling with her borderland, wrested
Brisbane, Australia fate. from mexico in 1848. Boullosa views the
border history through distinctly mexican
on her first day at Robin Black’s stories and essays have
eyes, and her sympathetic portrayal each
a new school, lily appeared in numerous publications. The
of her wildly diverse characters — mexican
befriends one of winner of many awards and a recipient of
ranchers and Texas rangers, Comanches
the daughters of fellowships from the leeway foundation
and cowboys, german socialists and
infamous avant- and the macDowell Colony, Black is a
runaway slaves, southern belles and
garde painter evan graduate of the warren wilson mfA
dance hall girls — makes her storytelling
Trentham. he and program for writers. she lives with
tremendously powerful and absorbing.
his wife are trying to her family in philadelphia.
with today’s mexican-American frontier
escape the stifling
such a front-burner concern, this novel
conservatism of
Rapids that brilliantly illuminates its historical
1930s Australia
by patrick Boltshauser landscape is especially welcome.
by inviting other
Translated from the German by Peter Arnds
like-minded artists to live and work at their Carmen Boullosa is one of mexico’s
family home. lily becomes infatuated with nomInATeD BY: leading writers. The author of over a dozen
this wild, makeshift family and longs to liechtenstein national library, Vaduz novels that have received numerous prizes
truly be a part of it. and honors, her work has been translated
A sideways view
As the years pass, lily observes into several languages. she lives in
of the “coming of
the way the lives of these artists come Brooklyn and mexico City.
age” experience,
to reflect the same themes as their art:
Rapids is the story
faustian bargains and spectacular falls
of a young man The miniaturist
from grace. Yet it’s not evan, but his own
who moves to a by Jessie Burton
daughters, who pay the price for his
strange city and
radicalism. nomInATeD BY:
finds himself lost in
The Strays is an engrossing story městská knihovna v praze, Czech republic
its warren of streets
of ambition, sacrifice and compromised Cork City libraries, Ireland
and squares. he is
loyalties. Timaru District libraries, new Zealand
looking for his own
library of Birmingham, UK
Emily Bitto has a masters in literary identity – personal,
newcastle libraries, UK
studies and a phD in Creative writing from political, and sexual. A series of encounters
the University of melbourne, where she is culminates with his meeting Anja: a strong, on an autumn day
a sessional teacher and supervisor in the older woman, stuck in a relationship with in 1686, eighteen-
creative writing program. her debut novel, another man she cannot bring herself to year-old nella
The Strays, was shortlisted for the 2013 leave. Anja becomes an anchor for the oortman knocks
Victorian premier’s literary Award for an young man, yet their relationship must at the door of a
Unpublished manuscript. remain a secret – and when that secret grand house in the
finally comes to light, their troubles begin. wealthiest quarter
of Amsterdam. she
Life Drawing Patrick Boltshauser is a playwright
has come from the
by robin Black and novelist. Born in 1971 in st. gallen,
country to begin
switzerland, he grew up in schaan,
nomInATeD BY: a new life as the
liechtenstein. since 1996, several of his
The free library of philadelphia, UsA wife of illustrious
plays have been performed in Austria,
merchant trader Johannes Brandt, but
Augusta edelman – germany, switzerland, and poland.
instead she is met by his sharp-tongued
gus to her friends – Rapids is his first novel.
sister, marin. later Johannes presents
is a painter, a wife,
her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a
and not always the
Texas: The Great Theft cabinet-sized replica of their home. It is
best judge of her
by Carmen Boullosa to be furnished by an elusive miniaturist,
own choices – one
Translated from the Spanish by whose tiny creations mirror their real-life
of them bad enough
Samantha Schnee counterparts in unexpected ways...
that she and her
nella is at first mystified by the closed
husband, owen, nomInATeD BY:
world of the Brandt household, but as
have fled their Biblioteca Daniel Cosío Villegas, el Colegio
she uncovers its secrets she realizes the
longtime city home de méxico A.C., mexico City
escalating dangers that await them all.
and its reminders
www.dublinliteraryaward.ie 7
S Jessie Burton was born in 1982. she manages to bluff his way to a friendship the first Catalan television series, followed
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I Central school of speech and Drama, and under the table at the beautiful sigerius
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E has worked as an actress and a pA in the farmhouse, Aaron feels part of the family. A Outlaws
L City. she now lives in south-east london, perfect family.
B by Javier Cercas
I not far from where she grew up. Until, that is, things start to go
G Translated from the Spanish by
LI wrong in a very big way. A cataclysmic Anne McLean
E explosion in a firework factory, the advent
6 Ghost moon
1 of internet pornography, the reappearance nomInATeD BY:
0 by ron Butlin
2 of a forgotten murderer and a jet-black- openbare Bibliotheek Brugge, Belgium

nomInATeD BY: wig all play a role in the spectacular Biblioteca Vila de gràcia, Biblioteques de
Zentralbibliothek Zürich, switzerland fragmentation of the sigerius clan... and of Barcelona, spain
Aaron’s fragile psyche. Universitätsbibliothek Bern, switzerland
having been
thrown out onto the Peter Buwalda is a Dutch novelist, In the late 1970s,
edinburgh streets formerly a journalist, editor at several as spain was
by her family, publishers, and founder of the literary adrift between the
maggie knows music magazine Wah-Wah. Bonita Avenue, death of franco
she must fight to his award-winning debut novel, spent two and the rebirth of
survive. many years years on the bestseller lists, and has since democracy, people
later, the struggles been translated into seven languages. were moving from
she had to endure the poor south to
can be kept a secret the cities of the
Confessions
no longer. north in search of
by Jaume Cabré
set mostly in post- a better life. But
Translated from the Catalan by
war Britain and inspired by a real-life story, the work, when
Mara Faye Lethem
Ghost Moon is narrated with humour and there was any, was poorly paid and the
compassion. A life-affirming read. nomInATeD BY: housing squalid. one summer’s day in
wojewódzka Biblioteka publiczna im. gerona a bespectacled, sixteen-year-old
with an international reputation as a
marszałka Józefa piłsudskiego w Łodzi, Ignacio Cañas is working in an amusement
prize-winning novelist, Ron Butlin is also
poland arcade, when a charismatic teenager
the edinburgh makar poet laureate. much
Bibliothèques municipales genève, walks in with the most beautiful girl Cañas
of his poetry, as well as many of his novels
switzerland has ever seen. Zarco and Tere take over
and short stories have been broadcast
his pinball machine and his life. Thirty
and translated into over ten languages. At 60, Adrià Ardèvol
years on and now a successful criminal
In addition to his plays for BBC radio and re-examines his life
defence lawyer, Cañas has tried to put
theatre, he has written five operas, two of before his memory
that long, hot summer of drugs, yearning
them for scottish opera. is systematically
and delinquency behind him. But when
deleted. he recalls
Tere appears in his office and asks him to
a loveless childhood
Bonita Avenue represent el Zarco, who has been in prison
where the family
by peter Buwalda all this time, what else can Cañas do but
antique business
Translated from the Dutch by accept.
and his father’s
Jonathan Reeder
study become the Javier Cercas is a lecturer in spanish
nomInATeD BY: centre of his world. literature at the University of girona. he is
openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, his mother, a cold, the author of Outlaws, The Tenant and The
The netherlands distant and pragmatic woman leaves him Motive, The Anatomy of a Moment, Soldiers
De Bibliotheek eindhoven, to his solitary games, full of unwanted of Salamis and The Speed of Light.
The netherlands questions. An accident ends the life of
The libraries of The hague, his enigmatic father, filling Adrià’s world
Gutenberg’s Apprentice
The netherlands with guilt, secrets and deeply troubling
by Alix Christie
De Bibliotheek Utrecht, The netherlands mysteries that take him years to uncover
and driving him deep into the past where nomInATeD BY:
A darkly
atrocities are methodically exposed and san José public library, UsA
hilarious tale of
examined. gliding effortlessly between
a model family’s
centuries, and at the same time providing
disintegration.
a powerful narrative, mysterious, tragic,
professor siem
humorous and gloriously readable,
sigerius – maths
Confessions reaches a crescendo that
genius, jazz lover,
provides one of the most startling
judo champion,
dénouements in contemporary literature.
renaissance man.
when Aaron meets Jaume Cabré is a Catalan philologist,
his girlfriend Joni’s novelist and screenwriter. for many years
family for the he has combined literary writing with
first time, her multitalented father could teaching. he has also worked in television
hardly be a more intimidating figure, but and cinema. he collaborated with Joaquim
somehow the underachieving photographer maria puyal as creator and scriptwriter of
8 www.dublinliteraryaward.ie
the first Catalan television series, followed Youthful, ambitious But when a local murder tied to the cartel waves through the lives of ordinary and 2
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by numerous other shows. peter schoeffer implicates a friend, ladydi’s future takes extraordinary south Africans alike. 1
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is on the verge a dark turn. Despite the odds against playwrights, politicians, philosophers, E
of professional her, this spirited heroine’s resilience and thieves, all caught in their individual L
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success as a scribe and resolve bring hope to otherwise stories, burst from the pages of Imraan
by Javier Cercas IB
when his foster heartbreaking conditions. Coovadia’s Tales of the Metric System as it L
Translated from the Spanish by father, Johann measures south Africa’s modern history in E
Anne McLean Jennifer Clement is the author of multiple T
fust, summons its own remarkable units of imagination. I
books, including Widow Basquiat. she was T
nomInATeD BY: him home to meet L
awarded the neA fellowship for literature Imraan Coovadia was born in Durban in E
openbare Bibliotheek Brugge, Belgium “a most amazing S
and the sara Curry humanitarian Award 1970. he is the author of the novels The
Biblioteca Vila de gràcia, Biblioteques de man.”
for Prayers for the Stolen. formerly Wedding, Green-Eyed Thieves, High Low
Barcelona, spain Johann gutenberg,
president of pen mexico, she currently In-between, and The Institute for Taxi Poetry.
Universitätsbibliothek Bern, switzerland a driven and caustic inventor, has
lives in mexico City his work has won the sunday Times fiction
devised a revolutionary – and to some,
In the late 1970s, prize, the University of Johannesburg
blasphemous – method of bookmaking:
as spain was prize, the m-net prize, and a south African
a machine he calls a printing press. fust Adultery by Paulo Coelho
adrift between the literary Award for non-fiction. he is a
is financing gutenberg’s workshop and Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret
death of franco graduate of harvard College and directs
he orders peter to become gutenberg’s Jull Costa & Zoë Perry
and the rebirth of the writing programme at the University of
apprentice. resentful at having to abandon
democracy, people nomInATeD BY: Cape Town.
a prestigious career as a scribe, peter
were moving from galway County library, Ireland
begins his education in the “darkest art.”
the poor south to Jacksonville public library, UsA
As his skill grows, so, too, does Academy Street
the cities of the
his admiration for gutenberg and his by mary Costello
north in search of “I want to change.
dedication to their daring venture: copies of
a better life. But I need to change. nomInATeD BY:
the holy Bible. But mechanical difficulties
the work, when I’m gradually losing Dublin City public libraries, Ireland
and the crushing power of the Catholic
there was any, was poorly paid and the touch with myself.” galway County library, Ireland
Church threaten their work…
housing squalid. one summer’s day in Adultery, the limerick City & County libraries, Ireland
gerona a bespectacled, sixteen-year-old provocative new waterford City & County libraries, Ireland
Alix Christie is an author, journalist, and
Ignacio Cañas is working in an amusement novel by paulo Christchurch City libraries, new Zealand
letterpress printer. she learned the craft
arcade, when a charismatic teenager Coelho, explores
as an apprentice to two master California growing up in the
walks in with the most beautiful girl Cañas the question of
printers, and owns and operates a 1910 west of Ireland in
has ever seen. Zarco and Tere take over what it means to
Chandler & price letterpress. she lives in the 1940s Tess is
his pinball machine and his life. Thirty live life fully and
london, where she reviews books and arts a shy introverted
years on and now a successful criminal happily, finding
for The economist. Gutenberg’s Apprentice child. But beneath
defence lawyer, Cañas has tried to put the balance between life’s routine and the
is her first novel. her quiet exterior
that long, hot summer of drugs, yearning desire for something new.
lies a heart of fire.
and delinquency behind him. But when
one of the most influential writers of our A fire that will later
Tere appears in his office and asks him to Prayers for the Stolen
time, Paulo Coelho is the author of many drive her to make
represent el Zarco, who has been in prison by Jennifer Clement
international best sellers, including The her home among
all this time, what else can Cañas do but
nomInATeD BY: Alchemist, Aleph, Eleven Minutes, and the hurly burly of
accept.
stadtbüchereien Manuscript Found in Accra. Translated into 1960s new York.
Javier Cercas is a lecturer in spanish Düsseldorf, germany 80 languages, his books have sold more over four decades and a life lived with
literature at the University of girona. he is than 165 million copies in more than 170 quiet intensity on Academy street in Upper
ladydi garcia
the author of Outlaws, The Tenant and The countries. In 2007, he was named a United manhattan, Tess encounters ferocious love
martínez is fierce,
Motive, The Anatomy of a Moment, Soldiers nations messenger of peace. and calamitous loss. But what endures is
funny and smart.
of Salamis and The Speed of Light. her bravery and fortitude, and her striking
she was born into
insights even as she is ‘floating close
a world where Tales of the metric System
to hazard.’
Gutenberg’s Apprentice being a girl is a by Imraan Coovadia
Joyous and heart-breaking, restrained
by Alix Christie dangerous thing. In
nomInATeD BY: but sweeping, this is a profoundly moving
guerrero the drug
nomInATeD BY: City of Johannesburg metropolitan library story that charts one woman’s quest for
lords are kings, and
san José public library, UsA & Information service, south Africa belonging amid the dazzle and tumult of
mothers disguise
America’s greatest city.
their daughters as from a natal
sons, or when that boarding school mary Costello grew up in County galway.
fails they “make them ugly” – cropping in the seventies her collection of short stories, The China
their hair, blackening their teeth- anything and soviet spies Factory, was nominated for the guardian
to protect them from the rapacious grasp in london in the first Book Award. her stories have been
of the cartels. And when the black sUVs eighties to the 1995 published in various anthologies and
roll through town, ladydi and her friends rugby world Cup broadcast on radio. she lives in Dublin.
burrow into holes in their backyards like and intrigue in the
animals, tucked safely out of sight. Union Buildings,
when ladydi is offered work as a Tales of the Metric
nanny for a wealthy family in Acapulco, System shows
she seizes the chance, and finds her first how ten days
taste of love with a young caretaker there. spread across four decades send tidal
www.dublinliteraryaward.ie 9
S Sweetland song for Beth, his wife-to-be, who is At seven years old,
E
L by michael Crummey seriously ill. Barrett turns unexpectedly to millie Bird realises
T
I religion, while Tyler grows convinced that that everything is
T nomInATeD BY:
E only drugs can release his creative powers. dying around her.
L edmonton public library, Canada The Snow Queen is beautiful and she wasn’t to know
B ottawa public library, Canada
I heartbreaking, comic and tragic. that after she had
G
saint John free public library, Canada
ELI newfoundland & labrador public michael Cunningham was raised in los rseecvoernd aesds towretendty -
6 libraries, Canada Angeles and now lives in new York. his
1 creatures in her
0 first novel A Home at the End of the World
2 for twelve Book of Dead Things
was published in 1990, and his second,
generations, her dad would be a
Flesh and Blood in 1995. The Hours was
when the fish Dead Thing, too.
awarded both the pulitzer prize for fiction
were plentiful and Agatha pantha is eighty-two and has
and the pen/faulkner Award and made
when they all-but not left her house since her husband died.
into an internationally acclaimed, oscar-
disappeared, the she sits behind her front window, hidden
winning film. he lives in new York
inhabitants of this by the curtains and ivy, and shouts at
remote island in passers-by, roaring her anger at complete
newfoundland Outline strangers. Until the day Agatha spies a
have lived and by rachel Cusk young girl across the street.
died together. Karl the Touch Typist is eighty-seven
nomInATeD BY:
now, in the second when his son kisses him on the cheek
liverpool City libraries, UK
decade of the 21st century, they are facing before leaving him at the nursing home.
resettlement, and each has been offered a A woman arrives As he watches his son leave, Karl has a
generous compensation package to leave. in Athens in the moment of clarity. he escapes the home
But the money is offered with a proviso: height of summer and takes off in search of something
everyone has to go. to teach a writing different.
moses sweetland refuses to leave. course. once there, millie, Agatha and Karl are about to
But in the face of determined, sometimes she becomes the break the rules and discover what living is
violent, opposition from his family and his audience to a chain all about.
friends, he is eventually swayed to sign on of narratives as the
Brooke Davis grew up in Bellbrae, Victoria.
to the government’s plan. Then a tragic people she meets
Lost & Found is her first novel, and she was
accident prompts him to fake his own tell her one after
lucky to write it as part of a phD at Curtin
death and stay on the deserted island. As another the stories
University in perth, western Australia. Lost
he manages a desperately diminishing food of their lives.
& Found proved to be the buzz book of the
supply, and battles against the ravages Beginning with the neighbouring
2014 london Book fair and the translation
of weather, sweetland finds himself in passenger on the flight out and his
rights have since been sold into twenty-five
the company of the vibrant ghosts of the tales of fast boats and failed marriages,
countries.
former islanders, whose porch lights still the storytellers talk of their loves and
seem to turn on at night. ambitions and pains, their anxieties, their
perceptions and daily lives. In the stifling News from Berlin
michael Crummey is the author of four
heat and noise of the city the sequence of by otto de Kat
books of poetry and a book of short stories,
voices begins to weave a complex human Translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke
Flesh and Blood. his novel Galore won the
tapestry: the experience of loss, the nature
2010 Commonwealth writers prize for Best of family life, the difficulty of intimacy and nomInATeD BY:
novel and was a finalist for the governor the mystery of creativity itself. The libraries of The hague,
general’s literary Awards. The netherlands
Rachel Cusk was born in 1967 and is the
author of seven novels: Saving Agnes, The June 1941. Dutch
The Snow Queen Temporary, The Country Life, The Lucky diplomat oscar
by michael Cunningham Ones, In the Fold, Arlington Park, and The Verschuur has been
nomInATeD BY: Bradshaw Variations. her non-fiction books posted to neutral
Bibliotheken der stadt mainz, germany are A Life’s Work, The Last Supper and switzerland. his
Universitätsbibliothek Bern, switzerland Aftermath. In 2003 she was chosen as one family is spread
of granta’s Best of Young novelists. across europe. his
walking through wife Kate works as
Central park, a nurse in london
Lost & Found
Barrett meeks and their daughter
by Brooke Davis
sees a translucent emma is living in
light in the sky that nomInATeD BY: Berlin with her
regards him in a The state library of western Australia, husband Carl, a ‘good’ german who works
distinctly godlike perth at the ministry of foreign Affairs.
way. Barrett doesn’t Briefly reunited with her father in
believe in visions a restaurant in geneva, emma drops a
– or in god – but bombshell. A date and a codename, and
he can’t deny what the fate of nations is placed in Verschuur’s
he’s seen. In nearby hands: June 22, Barbarossa.
Brooklyn, Tyler, Barrett’s older brother, is what should he do? warn the world,
trying – and failing – to write a wedding
10 www.dublinliteraryaward.ie