International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

Stewart

Stewart

Administrator
Staff member
In a world where books come and go at a seemingly increasing rate, so fast that by the time the Booker, Costas, and Orange have been won, attention turns to the next year’s hopefuls, praise be to the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. This is one award that feels more laidback, if only because the titles making its longlist, as regards publication, are quite a bit behind the crowd.

Nominations to the longlist come from participating libraries worldwide, which gives the award a unique slant, since titles in other awards typically are nominated by their publishers. And what a longlist it was, coming in string with a phenomenal 137 titles. Who’d be a judge? But judges there are, and they’ve whittled down the list to a more manageable eight.

The shortlist for 2008 is:
  • The Speed Of Light, Javier Cercas
  • The Sweet And Simple Kind, Yasmine Gooneraratne
  • De Niro’s Game, Rawi Hage
  • Dreams Of Speaking, Gail Jones
  • Let It Be Morning, Sayed Kashua
  • The Attack, Yasmina Khadra
  • The Woman Who Waited, Andre? Makine
  • Winterwood, Patrick McCabe
Of the titles, half are in translation, which is something else that makes the IMPAC Dublin an interesting award. But while it offers up a number of titles that may have been missed first time round, there’s still the sense that in the fast moving world of publishing, the titles, no matter how timeless they may come to be, are a little dated. Whoever wins won’t care, though, as the prize is €100,000 (split 75%/25% to author/translator in instances of translated works).

The winner will be announced on 12th June, 2008.
 
Stewart

Stewart

Administrator
Staff member
Re: International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2008

Apart from this and the Goonerararatne, I'd heard of all the rest. But Amazon, or whoever loads the pictures up, is quick off the mark, since it was only announced today, yet the book is ready to go, complete with winner status:

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L

learna

Reader
Re: International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2010

Daniel del Real said:
It's not the most lucrative literary prize. There is the Premio Planeta in Spain that is 601.000 ? to the winner and 125.000 ? to the finalist. And of course there is the Nobel Prize.
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When I read the article I thought that " one of the most lucrative..." would have been more correct, too.
 
peter_d

peter_d

Reader
Re: International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2010

An Irish Times article on the shortlist.

Not surprisingly Dutch newspapers have picked up the news that Gerbrand Bakker is on the shortlist with his novel The Twin. Headings are very similar to the BBC one: 'Gerbrand Bakker on shortlist literary prize'.

The Twin certainly is a good book. It's the only book on the list I have read, so I can't make a comparison with the others. I wonder who's going to be the favourite with the bookmakers...
 
A

accidie

Reader
Re: International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2010

Inclusion of Elegance of the Hedgehog makes it difficult to take the list entirely seriously. Let's see, an endearingly quirky child with family problems? 'Girls' giggling and 'bonding' over the kitchen table? (Sorry, can't endure typing that without inverted commas.) A Cinderella lifted from the ashes by camaraderie and, finally, a prince who recognises her true worth? Sorry, that isn't, as the Irish Times article would have it, a 'novel of ideas'. It isn't even, despite the occasional appearance to the contrary, pre-digested philosophy for the mass market. It's chick lit, for god's sake.
What on earth is it doing on the IMPAC shortlist?
 
E

Eric

Former Member
Re: International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2010

You know how I hate lists, but even worse than lists are great long rambling articles about shortlists where they don't manage to list the six or so candidates in alphabetical order:
  1. The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker (Dutch) in translation. Harvill Secker
  2. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (French) in translation. Europa Editions, USA, Gallic Press, UK
  3. In Zodiac Light by Robert Edric (British) Doubleday, UK
  4. Settlement by Christoph Hein (German) in translation. Metropolitan Books
  5. The Believers by Zo? Heller (British). Fig Tree
  6. Netherland by Joseph O?Neill (Irish) Fourth Estate, HarperCollins, UK, Pantheon Books, USA
  7. God?s Own Country by Ross Raisin (British) Viking
  8. Home by Marilynne Robinson (American) Farrar, Straus & Giroux, USA, HarperCollins, Canada
As usual, however, even in this list, the people who do all the work in the case of translations are just not mentioned. I only know of David Colmer who did the Bakker. But who translated the German and French shortlistees, to use a silly word, I have no idea.
 
Stewart

Stewart

Administrator
Staff member
Re: International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2010

Eric said:
The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker (Dutch) in translation.
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So, Gerbrand Bakker's The Twin (2006, trans: 2008, David Colmer) has been awarded.
...who translated the German and French shortlistees...
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The Barberry was translated by Alison Anderson; the Hein by Philip Boehm.
 
M

mesnalty

Reader
IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2011

Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin has been announced as the winner of the highly lucrative IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. It wasn't even the only Irish novel about New York on the shortlist - Colm Toibin's Brooklyn was also there. McCann also beat out works by Barbara Kingsolver, Yiyun Li, Joyce Carol Oates, David Malouf, William Trevor, and others.
 
Stevie B

Stevie B

Current Member
Re: 2017 International Dublin Literary Award Longlist Announced

Some questionable books on the longlist.. Makes me wonder if they allow authors to self-nominate.
 
Daniel del Real

Daniel del Real

Moderator
Re: 2017 International Dublin Literary Award Longlist Announced

Stevie B said:
Some questionable books on the longlist.. Makes me wonder if they allow authors to self-nominate.
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Yes, like Isabel Allende or The Girl in the Train.

From all the novels listed I've only read three: Mia Couto's Confession of the Lioness is a hell of a book. I think its chances are very good to at least being at the shortlist.
The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa which is a good novel but nothing that really can stand up among his production. Also Evelio Rosero's novel rarely translated Feasts of the Innocents which I recommend everyone to avoid.

Has anyone read or heard anything about The Mersault Investigarion. I caught my attention for his obvious reference to Camus and it probably could be either great or trash.

Another name that caught my attention was Pedro Carmona-Alvarez, a name you can identify as a Spanish speaker, but with a translation coming from Norwegian. I found he was born in Chile but here is not a lot of information available to find out how he ended writing in Norwegian.

Also curious about Tomas Espedal, a writer some people have recommended me.
 
M

Marba

Reader
Re: 2017 International Dublin Literary Award Longlist Announced

Daniel del Real said:
Another name that caught my attention was Pedro Carmona-Alvarez, a name you can identify as a Spanish speaker, but with a translation coming from Norwegian. I found he was born in Chile but here is not a lot of information available to find out how he ended writing in Norwegian.
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Apparently Pedro Carmona-Alvarez was born in Chile in 1972 but as a 10-year-old his family left the country for Argentina because of the father's political activities and they ended up in Norway a year later.
 
Daniel del Real

Daniel del Real

Moderator
Re: 2017 International Dublin Literary Award Shortlist

Glad to see Couto, Agualusa and Luiselli short-listed. Pamuk probably don't need this award anymore.
Don't care about the English written works really.
 
Liam

Liam

Administrator
Re: 2017 International Dublin Literary Award Shortlist

I hope to God that Enright's book doesn't hinge on a child being molested. She uses it every time, :rolleyes:.
 
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