No. 11 April 2005 Fiction Matters The Newsletter of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2005

Complete list of eligible titles

Winner of the 2004 Award The 2005 Award This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun, translated from the French.

2005 Award Judges at the announcement of the Long List in Dublin, November 2004.

Tahar Ben Jelloun, receiving his Councillor Deirdre Heney representing the Lord Key Dates Waterford Crystal trophy. Mayor of Dublin, Patron of the Award, with 15th November 2004 Linda Coverdale, translator of the winning title. Announcement of long list of eligible titles and panel of international judges

8th March 2005 Shortlist Announcement

15th June 2005 Winner Announcement

17th June 2005 Presentation Dinner

L to R: Dr. J.B. Irwin, chair of IMPAC, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Deirdre Ellis-King, Dublin City Librarian and John Fitzgerald, Dublin City Manager. Judging Panel 2005

Nino Ricci was born in Ontario, Jonathan Buckley was born in Canada and has taught both in Birmingham, UK. He is the author of Canada and abroad. He now lives Rough Guide to Venice & the Veneto in Toronto, where he writes full- in addition to writing guidebooks on time. He is a past president of the Tuscany & Umbria and Florence, and Canadian Centre of International contributing to the Rough Guides to PEN, a writers’ human rights classical music and opera. His first organization that works for freedom novel, The Biography of Thomas of expression. He is the author of Lang, was published in 1997. Xerxes four award-winning novels, Lives of followed in 1999, Ghost MacIndoe the Saints, winner of the Governor in 2001, and Invisible in 2004. Since Nino Ricci General's Award for Fiction, In A Jonathan Buckley 2003 Jonathan has held a Royal Glass House, Where She Has Gone Literary Fund fellowship at the and, most recently, Testament. University of Sussex.

Milan Richter is a poet, translator Agnès Desarthe was born in 1966 and publisher, born in Bratislava in in Paris, where she now lives with 1948. He has published eight volumes her husband - a filmmaker, and of poetry including From Behind the her two children. She has worked Velvet Curtains, 1997, An Angel with as a translator and has published Black Feathers, 2000 and The Wrecked numerous books for children and Temple in Me, 2002. He was forbidden teenagers. She is the author of six to publish for more than ten years and novels, two of which, Five Photos during this time he devoted all his of My Wife and Good Intentions, creative activity to translation. He has have been published in English to served as chairman of Slovak Literary great acclaim. She received the Milan Richter Translators Society and as vice-chairman Agnès Desarthe Prix Inter 1996 for her novel Un of the Slovak PEN Centre. He has been Secret Sans Importance. director of the Jan Smrek International Literary Festival in Bratislava which he launched in 2000.

Eugene R. Sullivan, non-voting Rita Ann Higgins was born in 1955 chair of the judging panel, is a in Galway, Ireland. She is the author former Chief Judge of a US Court of eight collections of poetry, the of Appeals and brings a wealth most recent being An Awful Racket, of experience from sixteen years 2001. Throw in the Vowels: New & on the bench. His first novel, The Selected Poems is due in May 2005. Majority Rules, will be published She has edited Out the Clara Road: in January 2005. The Offaly Anthology and co-edited He currently heads up a judicial Word and Image: a collection of consultancy group outside of poems from Sunderland Women's Washington, D.C. Centre and Washington Bridge Eugene R. Sullivan Rita Ann Higgins Centre and Fizz: poetry of resistance and challenge 2004 – a poetry anthology written by young people. Rita has also written three plays. She is a member of Aosdána. The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is presented annually for a novel written in English or translated into English. The award is an initiative of Dublin City Council, the municipal government of Dublin, in partnership with IMPAC, a leading management productivity enhancement company, with the objective of promoting excellence in world literature. Nominations are submitted by library systems in major cities throughout the world. 2005 Nominations 4

Crescent Yet Eddie still desperately seeks redemption With wit and sympathy, Jane Alison in the still unknown last act of his life: was choreographs an intricate minuet among these Diana Abu-Jaber it a heroic success or a devastating failure? characters, drawn by love and loneliness, Nominated by The answer is as inspirational as a glimpse of aspiration and desperation, to two famously Multnomah County Library, Portland, USA heaven itself. romantic and elusive cities of water.

Thirty-nine-year-old spinster Sirine works as Mitch Albom is the author of the international Jane Alison is the author of The Love-Artist. She a chef in a Lebanese restaurant, her passions bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie and a nationally lives in Germany aroused only by the preparation of food — until syndicated columnist for the Detroit Free Press. an unbearably handsome Arabic literature He also serves on the boards of numerous Yellow Dog professor starts dropping by for a little home charities and lives with his wife in Michigan, cooking. Falling in love brings Sirine’s whole USA. Martin Amis heart to a boil—stirring up memories of her parents and questions about her identity as an Nominated by Arab-American. Brick Lane Jafet Library- American University of Beirut, Lebanon M.I. Rudomino State Library for Foreign Literature, Monica Ali Moscow, Russia Crescent weaves a multi-dimensional love story Nominated by set in the Arab-American community of Los When ‘dream husband’ Xan Meo is vengefully Angeles. A timely introduction to the richness Biblioteca Demonstrativa de Brasília, Brazil Frederiksberg Kommunes Biblioteker, Denmark assaulted in the garden of a London pub, he of Middle Eastern culture, it is a sensuous Time to Read - NW Libraries' Partnership, suffers head-injury, and personality-change. love story and a gripping tale of risk and Manchester, England Suddenly this family paragon becomes an anti- commitment. Universitäts-und Landesbibliothek Bonn, Germany husband and submits to an alien moral system. Veria Central Public Library, Greece We are introduced to the inverted worlds of Diana Abu-Jaber lives in Portland, Oregon, Cork City Library, Ireland the ‘yellow’ journalist, Clint Smoker; the high Belfast Education and Library Board, Northern USA and teaches at Portland State University. priest of hard men, Joseph Andrews; and the She is the author of one previous novel, Arabian Ireland Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek, Norway porno tycoon, Cora Susan. Jazz. Gemeentebibliotheek Utrecht, The Netherlands Lincoln City Libraries, USA Yellow Dog is a comic masterpiece, darkly in The Clerkenwell Tales tune with the endlessly shifting moral values of Nazneen, born in a hut in Bangladesh, now our troubled planet. It is also concerned with Peter Ackroyd lives in a cramped flat in London’s Tower what is changeless and perhaps unchangeable; Nominated by Hamlets with Chanu, twenty years her patriarchy; the violence arising between man Stedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek Gent, Belgium senior. For years, keeping house and rearing and man and the tortuous alliances between Hoofdstedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek, Brussels, children, she does what is expected of her. men and women. Belgium Yet Nazneen walks a tightrope between her daughter’s embarrassment and her husband’s Martin Amis is the author of nine novels, two The scene is London, 1399 and Richard II is resentments. Into that fragile peace walks collections of stories and six collections of on the throne. Strange signs and portents Karim; he opens her eyes and directs her gaze non-fiction. Koba the Dread, the successor to his are troubling the latter part of his reign. The – but what she sees comes as a surprise to them celebrated memoir, Experience, was published streets of London are rife with rumour, heresy, both. in 2002. espionage and murder at the centre of which is the nun, Sister Clarice, who has disturbing Meanwhile her sister Hasina, back in I’m Not Scared visions of the future. Is she a genuine prophet, Bangladesh, rushes headlong at her life. or the tool of earthly powers? Hasina’s letters from Dhaka recount a world Niccolò Ammaniti This is a story of adventure and suspense of overwhelming adversity. Shaped by their Translated from the Italian by Jonathan Hunt and, as in many of Peter Ackroyd’s novels, the landscapes and memories, both sisters struggle distant medieval past is no longer a foreign Nominated by to dream themselves out of the lives prescribed Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Firenze, Italy country but something alarmingly close and for them. authentic. Monica Ali was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Peter Ackroyd is the author of biographies of and grew up in England. Brick Lane, her first Dickens, Blake and Thomas More and of the novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the bestselling London: The Biography. His novel George Orwell Prize for political writing and Hawksmoor won the Whitbread Novel of the the prestigious Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Year. He lives in London and was awarded a Monica Ali lives in London with her husband CBE for services to literature in 2003. and two children.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven The Marriage of the Sea

Mitch Albom Jane Alison Nominated by Nominated by Consorci de Biblioteques de Barcelona, Spain Free Library of Philadelphia, USA Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs, USA In a damp Venetian palace, Oswaldo Eddie is a grizzled war veteran working at a contemplates the ravages of time to his body seaside amusement park. Once optimistic, his and his beloved city. In New York, Lach has just days now are a dull routine of work, loneliness, dropped Vera to join his new love, Francesca, and regret. Then, on his 83rd birthday, Eddie in Venice. In rainy London, Max packs for a dies in a tragic accident and awakens in the precipitous move to New Orleans, in pursuit afterlife. Here he learns that heaven is not of Lucinde. From New Orleans, Lucinde flies Eden, but a place where five people explain to the aid and comfort of Vera, who, betrayal your earthly life to you. or no, has accepted a grant to go paint in . . . Venice.

website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 5 2005 Nominations

The hottest summer in years... A tiny Oracle Night life in all its rich ordinariness has never been so community of five houses enclosed by wheat beautifully achieved. Paul Auster fields. While the adults shelter indoors, six children venture out on their bikes across the Nominated by Nicholson Baker was born in 1957. He has scorched, deserted countryside. Århus Kommunes Biblioteker, Denmark published five previous novels, The Mezzanine, Stadtbücherei Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany Stadtbüchereien Dusseldorf, Germany Room Temperature, Vox, The Fermata and The Whilst exploring a dilapidated and uninhabited Bács-Kiskun County Gov. Katona Jozsef County Everlasting Story of Nory, and three works of farmhouse, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano Library, Kecskemet, Hungary non-fiction, one of which, Double Fold: Libraries discovers a secret so momentous, so terrible, Richmond Public Library, USA and the Assault on Paper, won the National Book that he dare not tell anyone about it. It is Critics Circle Award. He lives in Maine, USA Ammaniti’s ability to inhabit the mind and Several months into his recovery from a near- with his wife and two children. perspective of his young hero that makes I’m fatal illness, thirty-four-year-old novelist Sidney Not Scared such an affecting and extraordinary Orr enters a stationery shop in Brooklyn and Shipwreck novel. The book is a masterpiece of coming buys a blue notebook. For the next nine days of age and a powerful reflection on the Orr will live under the spell of this blank book, Louis Begley complexities and compromises inherent in trapped inside a world of eerie premonitions Nominated by growing up. and puzzling events that threaten to destroy his Büchereien Wein, Vienna, Austria marriage and undermine his faith in reality. Münchner Stadtbibliothek, Munich, Germany Niccolò Ammaniti was born in Rome in 1966. This is his third novel and he has also Oracle Night reads like an old-fashioned ghost John North, a prize-winning American writer, published a collection of stories. At thirty- story. But there are no ghosts in this book— is suddenly beset by dark suspicions about the four, he was the youngest ever winner of the only flesh-and-blood human beings, wandering real value of his work. In a mysterious café he prestigious Viareggio-Repaci prize. through the haunted realms of everyday life. It recounts the one story he has never told before. is at once a meditation on the nature of time North has always been faithful to his wife, Oryx and Crake and a journey through the labyrinth of one Lydia, but when one of his novels achieves a man’s imagination. special success, he allows himself a dalliance Margaret Atwood with Léa, a star struck young journalist. Léa Nominated by Paul Auster’s most recent novels, The Book of becomes obsessed with him and he with her Stedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek Gent, Belgium Illusions and Timbuctu were national bestsellers. elaborate erotic games. As the confession Biblioteca Demonstrativa de Brasília BDB, Brazil He lives in Brooklyn, New York. unfurls, we discover the extraordinary lengths Cape Breton Regional Library, Sydney, Canada to which North has gone to indulge a powerful Halifax Regional Library, Canada Gardening at Night — Shortlisted desire for self-destruction. Bibliothèque de Montréal, Canada Ottawa Public Library, Canada Rijeka City Library, Croatia Diane Awerbuck Shipwreck is a daring parable of the Newcastle Libraries & Information Service, England Nominated by contradictory impulses that can rend a single Stadtbüchereien Dusseldorf, Germany City of Johannesburg Library & Information Service, soul. Edinburgh City Libraries & Information Services, South Africa Scotland Louis Begley lives in New York City. His Kansas City Public Library, USA Gardening at Night follows the unfolding of a previous novels are Schmidt Delivered, Wartime Cleveland Public Library, USA young girl’s life from a childhood filled with Lies, The Man Who Was Late, As Max Saw It, About silences, through adolescence and young As the story opens Snowman, the narrator, Schmidt, and Mistler’s Exit. His website is womanhood. It is about how much people are www.louisbegley.com. slowly starving to death, mourns the loss of the total of their longings, how high drama can his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake. also be low comedy. He searches for supplies in a wasteland where Best Friends insects proliferate and dangerous beasts roam. It is especially the story of a girl’s escape from Thomas Berger Alone except for the green-eyed Children of a ghost town. The South African mining town Crake, he wonders why everything fell apart Nominated by of Kimberley was created over a hundred years Cape Breton Regional Library, Sydney, Canada so quickly from the time of Crake’s high- ago when men with buckets scraped out the tech bubble-dome where the Paradice Project insides of the earth like a thousand black unfolded and the world descended into grief. Since childhood, Sam Grandy and Roy dentists. Now it is a place where the only tales Courtright have been best friends. They grew are those of leaving. With breathtaking command of her shocking up in the same prosperous community, went to the same prep school, and later entered the material, and with her customary sharp wit Diane Awerbuck teaches high school English and dark humour, Atwood projects us into same university. As best friends, they share a and History to Cape Town schoolgirls. close and loving bond. an outlandish yet wholly believable realm Gardening at Night is her first novel. populated by characters that will continue to inhabit our dreams long after the last chapter. But in the twenty years since their friendship A Box of Matches began, differences have become apparent and their relationship has grown strained. Do these Margaret Atwood is the author of more Nicholson Baker than thirty books. Her novels include The differences threaten their friendship? When Nominated by Sam’s health begins to falter, he draws Roy into Handmaid’s Tale and Cat’s Eye – both shortlisted Zentral-und Landesbibliothek Berlin, Germany his life again -- and into a chain of deceit, sex, for the Booker Prize and The Blind Assassin, delusion, death, and love. winner of the Booker Prize and shortlisted for Emmett has a wife and two children, a cat, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. and a duck, and he wants to know what life is Best Friends is a powerful tale about friendship She lives in Toronto with novelist Graeme about. Every day he gets up before dawn, makes — and the complex loyalties involved. Gibson. a cup of coffee in the dark, lights a fire with one wooden match, and thinks. Thomas Berger is the author of twenty-three novels. His previous novels include Regiment of What Emmett thinks about is the subject of this Women, Neighbours, Meeting Evil, and The Feud, wise and closely observed novel, which covers which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. vast distances while moving no farther than Emmett’s hearth and home. Nicholson Baker’s extraordinary ability to describe and celebrate

website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 2005 Nominations 6

The Delicate Storm author of twenty one previous novels including girls. A grief-crazed father and a maniacal, complex assassin are just a few of the Giles Blunt Hotel du Lac, Family and Friends, A Private View, Incidents in the Rue Laugier, Altered States, Falling characters Robicheaux meets as he is drawn Nominated by Slowly and Undue Influence. deeper into a viper’s nest of sordid secrets and Warsaw Public Library, Poland escalating violence. Legally Blonde Algonquin Bay, northern Ontario: A freak warm Last Car To Elysian Fields is a masterful front has moved in, rousing hungry bears Amanda Brown exploration of the troubled side of human from hibernation - and spurring a smart and nature and the dark corners of the heart, a powerful killer to commit the perfect crime... Nominated by National Library, Male, Maldives moody hard-hitting novel that goes to the limit over and over again… in its provocative blend of human drama and relentless noir suspense. Giles Blunt grew up in a small town in Elle Woods is blonde, spoiled, creative and northern Ontario very much like his fictional desperately in love with Warner Huntingdon III. But when Warner announces he’s dumping James Lee Burke is the author of twenty-one Algonquin Bay. Forty Words for Sorrow, his first her to go off to Stanford Law School, Elle previous novels, including twelve featuring John Cardinal novel won the Silver Dagger decides that a little thing like law school won’t Detective Dave Robicheaux. Black Cherry Blues Award. He lives in Toronto and is at work on come between them. won the Edgar Award in 1989 and Cimarron his third John Cardinal novel. Elle’s Stanford misadventures begin badly. Rose in 1997. He lives with his wife, Pearl, in But then Elle is made an intern on the Murder Montana and Louisiana, USA. Drop City of Malibu case, defending one-time fitness T.C. Boyle queen Brooke Vandermark from the charge of A Memory of War murdering her billionaire husband. Seizing the Nominated by opportunity to prove her worth to Warner, she Frederick Busch Leipzig Stadtbibliothek, Germany vindicates Brooke and all who are blonde at LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library, Nominated by Tallahassee, USA heart with a tip any Cosmo girl should know. Free Library of Philadelphia, USA

It is 1970, and a California commune ‘Drop Amanda Brown based Legally Blonde on her Psychologist Alexander Lescziak savours a life City’ devoted to peace, free love and the experiences as a law student at Stanford. Her of quiet sophistication on Manhattan’s Upper simple life has decided to relocate to the last blonde is an ash undertone with highlights. West Side, turning a blind eye to the past of his frontier—the unforgiving landscape of interior Her second novel, Family Trust, is due soon. Polish émigré parents. Then the discovery that Alaska. Here they encounter a group of young he has a half- brother jolts Lescziak out of his Alaskans who are already homesteading in the The Da Vinci Code complacency: suddenly, his failing marriage, wilderness. As these two communities collide, and the disappearance of his young lover their alliances shift and unexpected friendships Dan Brown and suicidal patient, Nella, close in on him. and dangerous enmities are born as everyone Nominated by Lescziak escapes into his imagination, where struggles to simply survive. Rijeka City Library, Croatia his mother’s affair with a German prisoner Wojewódzka i Miejska Biblioteca Publiczna im comes to life in precise, gorgeous detail. As the Drop City reveals human behaviour at its most Marszalka J.Pilsudskiego, Lodz, Poland novel unfolds into a romance set in England’s Consorci de Biblioteques de Barcelona, Spain raw, most tender and most compelling. It Lake District in wartime, Frederick Busch takes an unsentimental look at the ideals of a stunningly reveals how the past presses in upon While in Paris symbologist Robert Langdon generation and their impact on today’s world. the present. receives an urgent late-night phone call. The curator of the Louvre has been murdered and, T. C. Boyle is the author of sixteen books of Frederick Busch is the author of nineteen near the body, police have found a baffling works of fiction. His most recent novel is The fiction, including World’s End, winner of the cipher. PEN / Faulkner Award, The Road to Welville, Night Inspector, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Faulkner After the Plague and The Inner Circle and six The stakes are raised when Langdon uncovers Award. He lives in upstate New York, USA. collections of stories. He currently lives near a startling link: the late curator was involved Santa Barbara, California with his wife and in the Priory of Sion – a secret society whose Alva & Irva three children. His website is www.tcboyle.com members included Sir Isaac Newton and Da Vinci, among others. Langdon suspects they Edward Carey The Rules of Engagement are on the hunt of a breathtaking historical Nominated by secret. Shifting from Paris, London, and Kansas City Public Library, USA Anita Brookner beyond, Langdon matches wits with a faceless Nominated by powerbroker who appears to anticipate his Alva and Irva are identical twin sisters. Alva is Veria Central Public Library, Greece every move. Unless he can decipher the puzzle by nature an explorer but Irva is a recluse for M.I. Rudomino State Library for Foreign Literature, in time, the Priory’s secret will be lost forever. Moscow, Russia whom stepping outside the house is an ordeal. Yet the twins feel each other’s emotions, Dan Brown is the bestselling author of Digital They shared the same Christian name and think each other’s thoughts, and suffer as Fortress, Angels & Demons, and Deception Point. they started school together on the same day. one. When Irva refuses to leave the house, He lives in New England, USA. One girl stayed as plain Elizabeth, while it Alva attempts to bring the city of Entralla into was decreed that the other would be Betsy. their shared home; she wanders its streets, Naturally, they became friends of a sort. Many Last Car to Elysian Fields observing all and brings her findings to Irva, who painstakingly constructs a miniature years later they still meet – different lives and James Lee Burke loves, different choices have marked them. Entralla. Their masterwork is a city whose Elizabeth is safely married to a man many Nominated by scale accommodates all their desires; a city that years her senior, whilst Betsy has allied herself City of Johannesburg Library & Information Services, comes to serve Entralla in a way its creators South Africa with someone she barely knows. Yet the never could have imagined. consequences of those choices, spelled out so In New Orleans Detective Dave Robicheaux long ago, have still to haunt them. Edward Carey was born in 1970, in England. is about to confront the man who may have Five of his plays have been produced in savagely assaulted his friend, Catholic priest, Anita Brookner was born in London in 1928. London, Romania, and Lithuania. His first Father Jimmie Dolan. Soon Robicheaux is novel, Observatory Mansions, was published in She trained as an art historian and taught at the probing a car crash that killed three teenage Courtauld Institute of Art until 1988. She is the 2001. He lives in Paris.

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My Life as a Fake away. Sánchez Mazas becomes a national hero Persuader and a minister in Franco’s first government. Peter Carey Lee Child The soldier disappears into history. Is Sánchez Nominated by Mazas the true hero of this story or the soldier Nominated by National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia who chose not to shoot him? Who was he and Tucson-Pima Public Library, Tucson, USA State Library of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia why did he spare Mazas? Jack Reacher is the ultimate loner. In Melbourne in the 1940s, a conservative Soldiers of Salamis is at once an investigation An elite ex-military cop, he’s moved from young poet named Christopher Chubb submits of historical truth, an essay on heroism and a place to place…without family…without for publication to a magazine the entire oeuvre celebration of the power of fiction. possessions…without commitments. of one Bob McCorkle, conveniently dead at twenty-four and entirely the product of Chubb’s And without fear.. Which is good, because Javier Cercas was born in 1962. Soldados de imagination. Not only does the magazine fall trouble finds Reacher wherever he goes. And Salamina has been published in more than for the hoax but also its editor is prosecuted when trouble finds him, Reacher never quits. fifteen languages and has received many for publishing obscenity. During the trial, But some unfinished business has now found literary prizes. David Trueba has also filmed it someone uncannily resembling the man in the Reacher and Reacher does not like unfinished faked photograph of the invented McCorkle for release in 2003. In 2004, Soldiers of Salamis business. leaps to his feet. At this moment the horrified was awarded the UK’s prestigious Independent Chubb is confronted by the malevolent being Foreign Fiction Prize. Ten years ago, a key investigation went sour he has himself manufactured. and someone got away with murder. But a The Lady and the Unicorn chance encounter brings it all back. Now A manic and endearing ode to fakery at its most Reacher sees his one last shot. Some would call Tracy Chevalier truthful and truth at its most fake, My Life As a it vengeance. Some would call it redemption. Fake penetrates to the heart of the alchemy of Nominated by Reacher would call it…justice. literature itself. London's Public Libraries, England Lee Child is the author of seven Jack Reacher Peter Carey is the multi- award- winning author thrillers. His debut, Killing Floor, won both the of eight novels, plus two highly acclaimed Anthony and the Barry Awards for Best First collections of short stories. He has won the Mystery. Child, a native of England and former Booker Prize twice- in 2001 for True History of television writer, lives outside New York City, the Kelly Gang and in 1988 for Oscar And Lucinda. USA. True History of the Kelly Gang was shortlisted for the 2003 International IMPAC Dublin Literary The Half Brother — Shortlisted Award. Born in Australia, Peter Carey now lives in New York. Lars Saabye Christensen Translated from the Norwegian by Kenneth Steven Shanghai Dancing Nominated by Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek, Norway Brian Castro Aberdeen Library & Information Services, Scotland Nominated by State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia It is May 1945, and Vera, our mother, is standing inside the drying loft unpegging “Shanghai Dancing is a fictional autobiography. clothes and carefully placing item after item in Told from an Australian perspective, it is the woven basket beside her. She is full to the loosely based on my family’s life in Shanghai, brim with a curious joy. The war has ended and Hong Kong and Macau from the 1930s to the in the summer she will be twenty … 1960s. Drawing on memory, stories, photos, and family myths and secrets, the book is about The Half Brother is an epic novel, covering the the twists and turns of fiction and personal lives of four generations of a family in their history. I feel this tale has been lurking in the Oslo flat. There is Fred, the boxer, conceived background for quite some time, finding its after the rape of his mother in the drying loft, and his younger brother, Barnum. The two way out of the labyrinth through dissimulation When a fifteenth-century nobleman hires half-brothers lead very different lives until they and story-making.” Brian Castro. an ambitious artist to design six tapestries are brought together again at their mother’s celebrating his rising status at Court it deathbed… Brian Castro was born in Hong Kong in 1950, proves more than a challenge to the talented and arrived in Australia in 1961. His novels miniaturist. Particularly when he meets his include Birds of Passage, Double-Wolf and After patron’s sumptuous daughter, Claude. His Lars Saabye Christensen is Norway’s leading China. Shanghai Dancing won the 2004 NSW pursuit of her pulls him unwittingly into the contemporary writer. He is the author of ten Premier’s Award for Fiction. He currently web of fragile court relationships. novels as well as short stories and poetry. The resides in the Dandenong Ranges near His design is revolutionary. In Brussels, a Half Brother won The Nordic Prize for Literature Melbourne, Australia. renowned weaver accepts the challenge. Sucked 2002. Lars Saabye Christensen lives in Oslo. into this world of temptation he and his family Soldiers of Salamis are consumed by their dealings with the rogue Eleven Minutes painter from Paris. Javier Cercas Paulo Coelho Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean The Lady and the Unicorn weaves a rich, Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa Nominated by satisfying tale about the passion and price of Nominated by Helsinki City Library, Finland artistic creation. Reykjavik City Library, Iceland Dublin City Public Libraries, Ireland Wojewódzka i Miejska Biblioteca Publiczna im Stadt-und Universitätsbibliothek Bern, Switzerland Tracy Chevalier grew up in Washington, DC. Marszalka, J.Pilsudskiego, Lodz Poland She moved to England in 1984. She is the Eleven Minutes tells the story of Maria, a young In the final moments of the Spanish Civil War, author of three previous novels: The Virgin Blue, Brazilian girl, whose first innocent brushes Rafael Sánchez Mazas — writer, fascist and Girl with a Pearl Earring and Falling Angels. She with love leave her heart-broken. From Rio she founder of the Spanish Falange manages to lives in North London with her husband and goes to Geneva, where she ends up working as escape execution. When a militiaman discovers son. his hiding place, he faces death again. But a prostitute. the unknown soldier simply turns and walks website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 2005 Nominations 8

Maria drifts further away from love while Gil Courtemanche is an author and journalist. developing a fascination with sex. Her He lives in Québec, Canada, where he works despairing view of love is put to the test when as a political columnist for the Montreal daily she meets a handsome young painter. Will she newspaper Le Devoir. A French feature film risk everything to find her own ‘inner light’ and production of A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali is the possibility of sex in the context of love. underway.

Paulo Coelho sensitively explores the nature Moon’s Crossing of sex and love in his gripping and daring new novel. Barbara Croft Nominated by Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Hartford Public Library, USA Brazil, in August 1947. He is the author of eight previous works, including The Alchemist, By the In 1894 Jim Moon, an idealistic Union Army River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, and Veronika veteran, leaves his young wife and son. He Decides to Die. He and his wife Christina live in visits Pullman Town, a model city south of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Chicago that is the site of a complex labour strike. Moon comes to see that the bright future Elizabeth Costello the project promised is compromised by greed. Unable to recapture his early vision of America, J.M. Coetzee he takes his own life. Nominated by State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Moon’s Crossing explores a unique time in Biblioteca Demonstrativa de Brasília BDB, Brazil American history, when the romantic heritage Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogota, Colombia of the nineteenth century merged with the Cork City Library, Ireland industrial temperament of the modern age. Floaty-boy’s mother is Adelaide – who holds Hamilton-Wenham Public Library, Hamilton, USA Moon’s adventures are completely American, not only her own family together but also the and the legacy he leaves is, ironically, more knockabout cronies of her larrikin husband. Elizabeth Costello is an Australian writer significant than his failed life would have When her eldest son, Eddie, disappears, her internationally famous mainly for an early foretold. novel that established her reputation and from family’s world threatens to fall apart and Floaty-boy has to find a way to cope. which, it seems, she will never escape. Barbara Croft won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize in 1998 for her short story collection One of a new breed of intellectual nomads, This is a mesmerising and beautifully imagined Necessary Fictions. Moon’s Crossing is her first coming-of-age novel. her life has become a series of engagements in novel. A native Iowan, she has lived in the sterile conference rooms throughout the world Chicago area for several years. - a private consciousness obliged to reveal itself Brett D’Arcy was born in Perth, Australia in 1963. He is the author of one previous novel, to a curious public. She has made her life’s The Lucky Ones work the study of other people yet now it is she The Book of Lonely, which is to be the subject who is the object of scrutiny. Rachel Cusk of a feature film. The Mindless Ferocity of Sharks won the 2003 WA Premier’s Award for Fiction. Nominated by Elizabeth Costello is a humane, moral, and Tweebronnen Openbare Bibliotheek, Leuven, uncompromising creation. It is a profound and Belgium Faceless delicate vision of literary celebrity, artistry and Amma Darko the private life of the mind. A young pregnant woman’s isolation; a new father’s first holiday away from his wife and Nominated by J.M. Coetzee’s work includes Waiting For The child; a daughter’s search for lost childhood; a National Library Service of Barbados, Bridgetown, Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K, Boyhood: mother’s transformation into a grandmother; Barbados Scenes From Provincial Life, Youth, and Disgrace, Ghana Library Board, Accra, Ghana and a wife’s secret longing – five men and The Gambia National Library, Banjul, The Gambia which won the Booker Prize, making him the women’s lives converge in this powerful and first author to have won it twice. In 2003 he moving story of family relationships. was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. “Perhaps the most frightening lesson in Faceless is the fact that having lost their moral authority Rachel Cusk was born in 1967 and is the author over their children, parents like Maa Tsuru are A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali of three previous novels, Saving Agnes, which totally paralysed by fear. Even Government won the Whitbread First Novel Award, The Gil Courtemanche itself has lost its priorities - it has become deaf Temporary, and The Country Life, which won to the cries of children abandoned… Translated from the French by Patricia Claxton a Somerset Maugham Award. A Life’s Work Nominated by was her controversial account of becoming a Amma Darko’s Faceless, is a wake-up call to us Bibliothèque de Montréal, Canada mother. Edmonton Public Library, Canada as parents. It’s not enough to sow the seeds Bibliothèques Municipales Geneva, Switzerland and engender human life. No seed grows into The Mindless Ferocity of Sharks harvest joys without the planter’s labour of love. Until we come to this understanding as The swimming pool of a Kigali hotel is Brett D’Arcy a magnet for an eclectic group of Kigali parents, as Community, we will forever stand residents, including waitress Gentille, a Nominated by condemned by the anguish in their eyes, forever beautiful Hutu and Bernard Valcourt, a State Library of Western Australia, Perth, Australia guilty of ‘the nurturing of …prospective soul(s) Canadian journalist. As the two fall in love into the devouring jaws of the streets’.” civil unrest takes hold in Rwanda engulfing Eleven year-old Floaty-boy inhabits an in- the people around the pool in the chaos of between world of wagging school and illicit Kofi Anyidoho, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, civil war. This novel confronts the nightmare night surfing. Neither boy nor man, he hovers January 12, 2003 that ravaged Rwanda in April 1994, when the on the edges of his existence: the reefs and Hutu-led government orchestrated genocide ledges of the ocean when he bodysurfs and the fringes of a family that seems to be spinning against the Tutsi people. A Sunday at the Pool in out of control. Kigali is a stirring hymn to humanity that will move and challenge all who read it.

website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 9 2005 Nominations

The Taxi Driver’s Daughter But when Wasantha finally reaches Colombo Mourning Ruby a revelation forces him to choose between his Julia Darling Helen Dunmore friend and his country. Nominated by Nominated by Gateshead Libraries & Arts, England Nihal de Silva is a product of St.Joseph’s and Gateshead Libraries & Arts, England the University of Ceylon. Road From Elephant When her mother is sent to prison for three Rebecca was abandoned by her mother in a Pass won the 2003 Gratiaen Prize awarded by months for assaulting a policeman with a shoebox in the backyard of an Italian restaurant Michael Ondaatje for the best English literary stiletto shoe, fifteen-year-old Caris goes gently when she was two days old. Her life begins work published in Sri Lanka. He recently off the rails. Whilst her taxi-driver father Mac without history, in the dark outdoors. Who attempts to keep the family together, Caris published his second book, The Far Spent Day. is she, where has she come from, and what meets George, a boy from the other side of the can she become? Thirty years later, married to vale and from a very different sort of family. Buddha Da Adam, she gives birth to Ruby, and to a new life Their relationship leads her away from school for herself. But when sudden tragedy changes Anne Donovan and what she has known, into a new and the course of that life forever, and all the lives unnerving world – and looks set to throw the Nominated by that touch hers, Rebecca is out in the world family into a terrifying chaos. Sheffield Libraries, Archives and Information again, searching… Services, England Glasgow Libraries Information & Learning, Scotland Julia Darling’s first novel, Crocodile Soup, was Illuminated by both sorrow and vivid joy, published to great acclaim in 1998 and was Anne Marie’s Da, a Glaswegian painter and Mourning Ruby is ultimately about the nominated for the longlist of the Orange Prize. decorator, has always been game for a laugh. transcendent power of storytelling itself. Darling is also a poet and playwright who has So when he first takes up meditation at the written plays for both the stage and for radio. Buddhist Centre, no one takes him seriously Helen Dunmore is the author of seven previous She lives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. (especially when his pursuit of the new lama novels including Zennor, In Darkness, which ends in a trip round the Carmunnock bypass). won the McKitterick Prize, A Spell of Winter, The Hamilton Case But as Jimmy becomes more involved in a which won the Orange Prize, Your Blue-eyed search for the spiritual, his beliefs start to come Boy, and The Siege, which was shortlisted for Michelle de Kretser into conflict with the needs of his wife, Liz. the 2001 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award Nominated by Cracks appear in their apparently happy family and for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2002. She State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia life, and the ensuing events change the lives of lives in Bristol, England. State Library of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia each family member. The Voices Set in Ceylon in the 1930s against the Anne Donovan’s first collection of short background of a fading corrupt empire this is stories, Hieroglyphics and Other Stories, was Susan Elderkin a gripping novel full of comedy and tragedy. published in 2001. Buddha Da was shortlisted Nominated by Sam Obeysekere is a Ceylonese lawyer, a perfect Wellington City Libraries, New Zealand product of empire. His family once had wealth for the 2003 Orange Prize for Fiction and the and influence but political change ends this. At Whitbread First Novel Award. She lives in Glasgow, Scotland. In the remote Australian bush, thirteen-year- the heart of the novel is the Hamilton Case, a old Billy Saint hears the haunting song of an murder scandal that shakes the upper echelons Schopenhauer’s Telescope Aboriginal girl. The song tugs at something of island society. deep and powerful within him. She has sung Gerard Donovan Billy up – and he is destined to love her forever. Full of irresistible characters, this is a sinuous, constantly surprising tale. It paints a haunting Nominated by Dublin City Public Libraries, Ireland In an Alice Springs hospital ten years later, picture of the end of an era, suffused with ‘the recovering from wounds of mysterious origin, unbearable thought that everything might have Billy attempts to explain the voices in his head. been different...’ One afternoon- in a certain European village, in the middle of a civil war- one man digs while But only Cecily, the Aboriginal nurse, will another man watches over him. listen. What unravels is a mesmerising account Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka and of the relationship between a man, the land he emigrated to Australia when she was 14. Her loves, and the spirits of the country. first novel, The Rose Grower, was published Gradually they begin to talk. in 2000. The Hamilton Case was the Regional As the snow falls and truckloads of villagers The Voices is a lament for a disappearing Winner of the 2004 Commonwealth Prize. are corralled in the next field, we discover culture, told with great delicacy and power. why the two men are there - not just who they The Road From Elephant Pass are and how specific, sinister events in their Born in 1968, Susan Elderkin is a graduate of Cambridge University and of the Creative Nihal De Silva country have led them to be separated by a deepening grave, but why the history of Writing MA at the University of East Anglia, Nominated by civilization is inseparable from the history of England. Her first novel, Sunset Over Chocolate Colombo Public Library, Sri Lanka mass violence. Mountain, won a Betty Trask Award. She lives in London. An army officer’s routine assignment to pick Gerard Donovan was born in 1959 in up a woman informant turns into a nightmare Ireland. He is the author of three books of The Ice Carriers when the Tigers launch a massive attack on the poetry, including The Lighthouse, which was camp at Elephant Pass. The two adversaries shortlisted for The Irish Times Literature Prize. Anna Enquist are forced to escape together through the rebel Translated from the Dutch by Jeannette K. Ringold held Wanni and later, cross the abandoned Schopenhauer’s Telescope, his first novel, was Wilpattu National Park on foot. selected for 2003 Man Booker longlist and Nominated by shortlisted for the 2003 Irish Novel of the Year Gemeentebibliotheek Rotterdam, The Netherlands Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, The Netherlands Bitter enemies at the start of their journey Award. He currently lives in New York. Captain Wasantha and the activist Kamala face What happens to parents when a teenager runs innumerable threats from many quarters. The away from home? constant external danger, and their enforced dependence on each other, gradually erodes Outwardly everything seems to be all right. their distrust. Their daughter has run away but the parents can’t talk about it, they act as if it never happened… website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 2005 Nominations 10

Nico and Louise both have good careers: Louise Mona remembers all too clearly the night of the So Brendan is back in Miranda’s life – with a teaches classical languages and Nico is the big row in the house on Manahambre Road, vengeance. But why has he done this? Soon director of a psychiatric hospital. Both try to back on her native island of Trinidad. That was what began as an embarrassment turns into her impose their will elsewhere, on things outside when everything changed. Now, 35 years later worst nightmare . . . their relationship; Louise on the sand-swept living in Toronto, Mona must confront her land of her garden, Nico on what he perceives past, as well as the secrets of a winding family Nicci French is the husband and wife team as the disorganisation of the hospital he runs. history begun on the Indian continent almost of journalist Nicci Gerrard and writer Sean The failure in the garden frustrates, but the two centuries ago. With uncles and aunts and French. Nicci French is the author of six situation in the hospital has more dramatic cousins scattered around the world, with her previous novels, The Memory Game, The Safe consequences. parents unhappy in Toronto, she yearns to House, Killing Me Softly, Beneath the Skin, The make sense of this tortured family. Mona finally Red Room, and Land of the Living. They live in Anna Enquist is a musician, a psychoanalyst, understands that she must reconcile past and Suffolk, England. a poet and a novelist. She is the author of two present before she can have a future previous novels, The Masterpiece and The Secret, Inkheart which won the 1997 Dutch Readers’ Prize. The Swinging Bridge is a story steeped in the rhythms and lyrical lilt of Caribbean life, a Cornelia Funke The Master Butchers Singing Club novel that explores the immigrant experience Translated from the German by Anthea Bell with compassion and humour. Nominated by Louise Erdrich Stadtbibliothek Bremen, Germany Nominated by Ramabai Espinet was born in Trinidad and Minneapolis Public Library, USA Tobago and has lived in Canada for more One cruel night, young Meggie’s father, Mo, than 25 years. Her published works include reads aloud from a book called Inkheart, and With a suitcase full of sausages and a master the poetry collection Nuclear Seasons, and two an evil ruler named Capricorn escapes the butcher’s precious set of knives, Fidelis sets children’s books, The Princess of Spadina and boundaries of fiction and lands in their living out for America with his pregnant wife Eva, Ninja’s Carnival. She lives in Toronto, Canada. room. Suddenly Meggie is smack in the middle reaching North Dakota, where he settles. He of the kind of adventure she has only read works hard building a business and a home Thomas Gage about in books. Somehow, Meggie and Mo — and a singing club consisting of the best must learn to harness the magic that conjured voices in town. Then Fidelis meets Delphine James Fleming this nightmare. Somehow, they must change Watzka, a daughter of Argus, in what turns out Nominated by the course of the story that has changed their to be one of the great adventures of his life. Birmingham Libraries, England lives forever.

The Master Butchers Singing Club unfolds its Thomas Gage is a happy man. He has a fine This is Inkheart, a timeless tale about books, themes of love and death, with eloquent power, house in Norfolk, a wife and two delightful about imagination, about life. sly humour and great depths of feeling. It is children, a Waterloo medal and a painting filled with memorable characters who grapple on show at the Royal Academy. Then, a few Cornelia Funke is one of Germany’s best- with the worst and best impulses of human months after his fiftieth birthday, Julius Gooby selling children’s book authors. She has nature. enters his life. Mr Gooby is manager of the written over 40 books. The Thief Lord has won proposed North Norfolk Railway and the route many awards both in the US and throughout Louise Erdrich grew up in North Dakota. She of the railway crosses Gage’s land. With the the world. She lives in Hamburg, Germany with is the author of eight novels, including the railway comes tragedy, and Thomas Gage’s her husband and children. National Book Critics Circle Award-winning life begins to unravel. He travels to London to Love Medicine as well as poetry, children’s watch the Duke of Wellington’s funeral and to An Evening at the Club books and a memoir of mothering, The Blue take his revenge. Jay’s Dance. She lives in Minnesota with her Christian Gailly children, who help her run a small independent Thomas Gage is a portrait of a good man undone Translated from the French by Susan Fairfield bookstore, The Birchbark. by grief, by others’ greed and, ultimately, by Nominated by progress. Bibliothèques Municipales Geneva, Switzerland The Swinging Bridge James Fleming was born in 1944. He lives in In order to save his life and his marriage, Ramabai Espinet Gloucestershire and writes in Caithness. He is Simon Nardis gave up his career as an Nominated by the author of one previous novel, The Temple of outstandingly innovative jazz pianist. No more National Library and Information System Authority Optimism. road trips, alcohol, or women. ..and no more (NALIS) Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago jazz. Then, one evening, he finds himself in a Secret Smile jazz club owned by the American singer Debbie Parker. The sudden, irresistible reawakening of Nicci French sexual and artistic passion in this middle-aged Nominated by man leads to a tragicomedy of missed trains Stedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek Gent, Belgium and missed opportunities. Gailly’s deadpan, quirky humour and style are a dazzling How could something as innocent as a smile counterpoint to the profound and disturbing lead to murder…? theme of the novel: the life-and-death sacrifices demanded by art and marriage. When Miranda Cotton returns to find her new boyfriend, Brendan, reading her diary, she ends Christian Gailly was born in 1943 in Belleville, the relationship and throws him out of her flat. France, close to Paris. Prior to becoming a Getting Brendan out of her life, however, is not writer he was a jazz saxophonist and then a so easy. psychoanalyst. Since 1987 he has published eleven novels. Two weeks later her sister, Kerry, phones her. She’s in love. She has a new boyfriend. He’s called Brendan . . .

website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 11 2005 Nominations

A Sweet Obscurity Miro Gavran was born in 1961. He is the author Three Dog Night of six novels, a book of short stories and thirty- Patrick Gale Peter Goldsworthy three dramas. His novel The Forgotten Son was Nominated by included on the IBBY Honour List 2002 in Nominated by Chicago Public Library, USA Basle, Switzerland. He lives in Zagreb, Croatia. National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Dido, the nine-year-old heroine and emotional State Library of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia The Scornful Moon centre of A Sweet Obscurity, knows that the State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia adults, who surround her, depend on her for Maurice Gee happiness. So who is she to turn to when her If love is an obsessive-compulsive disorder, then I short life turns upside down? Nominated by have been ill for years. But never as sick with bliss, as Auckland City Libraries, New Zealand diseased, as now. Christchurch City Libraries, New Zealand Eliza, the clever, depressive aunt who has Wellington City Libraries, New Zealand brought Dido up, tries and fails to give Dido After ten years in London, Martin Blackman returns to Adelaide with his wife and fellow the happy normal childhood she never had Wellington, 1935 and James Tinling, a former psychiatrist Lucy, blissfully happy. But then he herself. Her ex-husband Giles needs Dido back Cabinet Minister, plans a political comeback, introduces her to his old friend Felix, once a in his life. Then the new love in Eliza’s messy although a brash newcomer stands in his way. brilliant surgeon, now barred from practising life is a man desperate to give them the security James has methods of dealing with upstarts, and changed beyond recognition. In the and protection they need. But will Eliza let him? but is handicapped by secrets in his life. Eric complex triangle that develops, Martin must Only Dido has the power to make or break the Clifton, world-renowned moon scientist, has decide just how far he is prepared to go for happiness of these children in adult clothing. secrets too. He lives hot-bloodedly and is at war Felix. So begins the darkest of journeys for all with patrician James. Patrick Gale was born in 1962, on the Isle of three of them . . . Wight, England. His most recent novels are Sam Holloway, literary man and moralist, Rough Music and Tree Surgery for Beginners. records their year - its sexual intrigues and Confronting, unpredictable, richly sexual, Three sudden violence and it’s overturning of political Dog Night is a lyrical page-turner. The Good Doctor — Shortlisted norms. What role does the young poet Owen Moody play, and brothel madam Lily Maxey? Peter Goldsworthy is the author of six previous Damon Galgut Election day. Labour wins, crushing James’s novels, including Keep it Simple, Stupid and Jesus Nominated by party. His secrets are shockingly revealed. Wants Me For a Sunbeam. He lives in Adelaide, Hoofdstedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek, Brussels, Australia. Further information can be found at Belgium Maurice Gee is one of New Zealand’s best- his website www.petergoldsworthy.com Municipal Library of Prague, Czech Republic known writers, for both adults and children. Maurice Gee’s novels include the three books The Seduction of Water When Laurence Waters arrives at his new post in the Plumb trilogy, Going West (winner of the at a deserted rural hospital, staff physician Wattie award), Prowlers, Live Bodies (winner of Carol Goodman Frank Eloff is instantly suspicious. Laurence the Montana Award) and Ellie and the Shadow Nominated by is young, optimistic, and full of big ideas Man. He lives in Wellington with his wife Belfast Education and Library Board, Northern — everything Frank, hardened and embittered Ireland Margareta. by years of disappointment in the “bush,” is not. The two become uneasy friends, while the Many years ago, Iris Greenfeder’s mother rest of the staff in the dilapidated hospital view Elle — Shortlisted disappeared. They were living at Hotel Equinox Laurence with a mixture of awe and distrust. Douglas Glover where Iris’s father was the manager and where her mother wrote delicate, powerful fantasies. Laurence wants to help, but in a world where Nominated by Then, one day, she left and never returned. the past is demanding restitution from the Edmonton Public Library, Canada Ottawa Public Library, Canada present, his idealism cannot last. When the Returning to Hotel Equinox to finish her crunch comes, who will make the cynical doctorate, Iris needs to find the truth about her Based on a true story, Elle chronicles the choice, and who the moral one? mother; some keys are held in those fantastical ordeals and adventures of a young French writings and others in the memories of those woman marooned on the desolate Isle of Damon Galgut was born in Pretoria in 1963. He who knew her. Kay Greenfeder, it seems, was Demons during Jacques Cartier’s ill fated and wrote his first novel, A Sinless Season, when he a woman without a past. But as Iris begins last attempt to colonise Canada. was seventeen. His other books include Small to untangle the secrets of years before, she realises that the past was very different to what Circle of Beings, The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs The novel brilliantly reinvents the beginnings she had believed, and much more dangerous... and The Quarry. He lives in Cape Town, South of this country’s history and the terrible failure Africa. of the two worlds to recognise each other as Carol Goodman is the author of one previous human. In a carnal whirlwind of myth and John the Baptist story, of death, lust and love, of beauty and novel, The Lake of Dead Languages. After hilarity, Glover brings the past violently and graduating from Vassar College, where she Miro Gavran unexpectedly into the present. Mysterious, majored in Latin, she taught Latin for several years. She then studied for an MFA in fiction. Translated from the Croatian by Laura Gudim mystical and thoroughly original, Elle charts the She currently teaches writing and lives in Long Nominated by magical zone of delirium where races, genders, Island, USA. Rijeka City Library, Croatia languages, and ideas converge- everything the history books leave out. John the Baptist is set at the beginning of the first century of the new era, in the area of Douglas Glover is the author of eight works of Galilee and Judaea, and partly in ancient Rome, fiction, including Sixteen Categories of Desire, A in a time of stormy political and religious Guide to Animal Behaviour, a Governor General’s turmoil. The main heroes are the young men Award finalist, and The Life and Times of Captain Elisha and Bileam, and the fateful Salome. N. Elle won the Governor General’s Literary Their lives, in different ways, will change Award 2003. fundamentally when they meet John the Baptist. This is a novel rich in fable and steeped in powerful emotions, passions and rapture.

website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 2005 Nominations 12

Crabwalk boy and an English airman who is shot down Norway over the marshlands nearby. The girl devotes all Edinburgh City Libraries & Information Services, Günter Grass her energies towards keeping him hidden but Scotland Translated from the German by Krishna Winston when the boy discovers this secret he commits Cape Town Central Library, South Africa Chicago Public Library, USA Nominated by a deplorable act of treachery. Büchereien Wein, Vienna, Austria LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library, Tallahassee, USA Tampere City Library, Finland Fifty years later an elderly man receives a Stadtbibliothek Bremen, Germany Miami-Dade Public Library System, Miami, USA Cork City Library, Ireland package containing a cigarette case that must Milwaukee Public Library, USA have belonged to the pilot he met that summer. Minneapolis Public Library, USA The letter is from the girl that he had adored. New Hampshire State Library, Concord, USA Crabwalk tells the story of the sinking of the New York Public Library, USA ‘Wilhelm Gustloff’ by a Soviet submarine in As he looks back he contemplates his awful betrayal. Richland County Public Library, Columbia, USA January 1945. Some 9,000 people, most of them Tucson-Pima Public Library, Tucson, USA women and children went down in the Baltic Jens Christian Grøndahl, born in 1959, is one Sea. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time of Denmark’s leading writers. His fiction has is a murder mystery novel like no other. The been translated into sixteen languages and he Grass’s narrator is one of the few survivors. detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. has been the recipient of numerous awards Born on a lifeboat the night of the attack, Paul Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger’s, a including the Booksellers’ Golden Laurels for Pokriefke tries to piece together the tragic form of autism. He knows a great deal about events. While his mother Tulla constantly Lucca. maths but little about human beings. He loves looks back, for his teenage son Konrad, the lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the ‘Gustloff’ embodies the denial of Germany’s Phantom Pain — Shortlisted colours yellow and brown and being touched. wartime agony. He has never gone further than the end of Arnon Grunberg the road on his own, but when he finds a Crabwalk is at once a reckoning with an untold Translated from the Dutch by Sam Garrett neighbour’s dog murdered he sets out on a chapter of European history and a reflection on Nominated by terrifying journey, which will turn his whole the ways different generations of Germans now Gemeentebibliotheek Rotterdam, The Netherlands world upside down. view their past. Gemeentebibliotheek Utrecht, The Netherlands Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, The Netherlands Openbare Bibliotheek Eindhoven, The Netherlands Mark Haddon is an author, illustrator and Günter Grass, born in Danzig, Germany screenwriter who has written fifteen books in 1927, is Germany’s most celebrated Robert G. Mehlman, a once respected novelist, for children and won two BAFTAs. He lives in contemporary writer. He is a man of is a man in need of money and recognition, Oxford, England. remarkable versatility: novelist, poet, fast. He turns to cookery writing. A practised playwright, essayist, and graphic artist. He was decadent and a serial womaniser, he has all the Holy Fools awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000. right qualities Joanne Harris The King of Torts Phantom Pain is the bitterly funny but Nominated by unpublished manuscript of Mehlman’s Frederiksberg Kommunes Biblioteker, Denmark John Grisham autobiography. In it, he tells the story of a Nominated by chauffeur-driven journey from New York to Set in seventeenth-century France against a Nelson Memorial Public Library, Apia, Samoa Atlantic City where Mehlman gambles away backdrop of witch trials, regicide and religious most of his remaining funds and then north, frenzy, this is the story of Juliette, one-time Clay Carter has been in The Office of the Public to Albany, where his unlikely salvation, and the actress and ropedancer. Defender for too long and dreams of a better inspiration for his book Polish-Jewish Cuisine job in a real firm. When he reluctantly takes the in 69 Recipes, lie. Forced to seek refuge with Fleur, her young case of a young man charged with a random daughter, in a remote abbey, Juliette reinvents street killing, he assumes it is just another of Phantom Pain is a hilariously black account of a herself as Soeur Auguste under the tutelage the many senseless murders that hit D.C. every writer’s fall and his subsequent rise. of the kindly Abbess. But then a new week. appointment is made, and Juliette’s new life Arnon Grunberg was born in 1971 in begins to unravel. For the new Abbess is As he explores the background of his client, Amsterdam. His first novel, Blue Mondays, Isabelle, the eleven-year-old child of a corrupt, Clay stumbles on a conspiracy too horrible became a bestseller in Europe, won the Anton noble family. Worse, Isabelle has brought with to believe. He suddenly finds himself in the Wachter Prize, and has been translated into her a ghost from Juliette’s past, masquerading middle of a complex case against one of the as a cleric, a man she has every reason to fear. largest pharmaceutical companies in the world twelve languages. Phantom Pain won the AKO that would make him, almost overnight, the Prize in Holland. Arnon Grunberg lives in New York City. Joanne Harris is the author of the Whitbread- legal profession’s newest king of torts... shortlisted Chocolat (made into a major film starring Juliette Binoche), Blackberry Wine, Five John Grisham is the author of Skipping The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Quarters of the Orange, Coastliners, Holy Fools, Christmas, The Summons, A Painted House, The Jigs & Reels, and, with Fran Warde, The French Brethren, The Testament, The Street Lawyer, The Mark Haddon Kitchen: A Cookbook. She lives in Huddersfield, Partner, The Runaway Jury, The Rainmaker, The Nominated by Yorkshire, with her husband and daughter. Chamber, The Client, The Pelican Brief, The Firm, Municipal Library of Prague, Czech Republic and A Time to Kill. See his website at www. Regional Library of Karviná, Karvina-Mizerov, Czech Pompeii jgrisham.com for further information. Republic Århus Kommunes Biblioteker, Denmark Robert Harris Virginia Birmingham Libraries, England Liverpool Libraries & Information Services, England Nominated by London's Public Libraries, England Stadtbüchereien Dusseldorf, Germany Jens Christian Grøndahl Newcastle Libraries & Information Service, England Richland County Public Library, Columbia, USA Translated from the Danish by Anne Born Time to Read - NW Libraries' Partnership, Nominated by Manchester, England Along the coast of the Bay of Naples, the Copenhagen Central Library, Denmark Bács-Kiskun County Government Katona Jozsef Roman Empire’s richest citizens are relaxing County Library, Kecskemet, Hungary in their luxurious villas. The world’s largest It is 1942 and Denmark is occupied by German Waterford County Library, Ireland navy lies peacefully at anchor in Misenum. But troops. A young woman meets two people who Dunedin Public Libraries, New Zealand engineer Marcus Attilius Primus is worried. Solvberget KF - Stavanger Bibliotek og Kulturhus, will affect her entire life: a fourteen-year-old He is responsible for the Aqua Augusta, the website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 13 2005 Nominations enormous aqueduct that brings fresh water to a contain his growing obsession with external of Ottawa’s Rideau Canal to the lushness of quarter of a million people around the Bay. And safety, relieve his suspicion of those closest to Vancouver Island, from the bustle of downtown now there is a crisis on the Augusta’s sixty-mile him, or stop the coming violence. Sydney to the sun-baked desolation of the main line in the region of Mount Vesuvius. Queensland outback. Sonny Aalto, a restless Christoph Hein, a novelist, poet, playwright, middle-aged businessman and his larger-than- Attilius - decent, practical, and incorruptible and essayist, is among Europe’s most respected life father, Timo – who is dying – embark on - promises Pliny, the navy commander, that literary and political voices. A former president a journey to Australia in search of a woman he can repair the aqueduct. But he is about to of German PEN, he is the author of the from their past and over the course of the next discover there are forces that even the world’s internationally acclaimed and award winning few months their adventures reveal difficult only superpower cannot control. novels The Distant Lover and The Tango Player, truths about fathers and sons, about families, which have been translated into seventeen about how we live and how we die – and about Robert Harris was born in Nottingham in languages. He lives in Berlin. the good and bad things that distance can 1957. He has been a television and newspaper sometimes provide. reporter and in 2003 he was named Columnist Notes on a Scandal of the Year in the British Press Awards. He Jack Hodgins was born and raised on is the author of the number one bestsellers Zoë Heller Vancouver Island, Canada. He is the author Fatherland, Enigma and Archangel, as well as Nominated by of three books of short stories and seven five non-fiction books. He lives in Berkshire, Time to Read - NW Libraries' Partnership, novels, including The Invention of the World, England with his wife and four children. Manchester, England The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne, winner of the Governor General’s Award, and Broken Ground. The Great Fire — Shortlisted From the first day that the beguiling Sheba Hart He is also the author of A Passion for Narrative: A joins the staff of St George’s, history teacher Guide for Writing Fiction. Shirley Hazzard Barbara Covett is convinced that she has found Nominated by a kindred spirit. Barbara’s loyalty to her new The Salt Roads National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia friend is passionate and unstinting and when Lincoln City Libraries, USA Sheba is discovered to be having an illicit affair Nalo Hopkinson Tucson-Pima Public Library, Tucson, USA with one of her young pupils, Barbara quickly Nominated by elects herself as Sheba’s chief defender. But all National Library and Information System Authority The year is 1947. In war-torn Asia and stricken is not as at first it seems in this dark story and, (NALIS), Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago Europe, men and women, still young but as Sheba will soon discover, a friend can be just Hartford Public Library, USA veterans of harsh experience, must reinvent as treacherous as any lover. their lives and expectations, and learn, from The Salt Roads explores the relationships their past, to dream again. At the centre of Zoë Heller was born in London. Her first women have with their lovers, with each other, the story, a brave and brilliant soldier finds novel, Everything You Know, was published in with their people, and with the divine across that survival and worldly achievement are not 1999. Zoë Heller writes a column for the Daily centuries and civilizations, weaving the stories enough. His counterpart, a young girl living in Telegraph and was Columnist of the Year for of Jeanne, an entertainer in the Paris of the occupied Japan and tending her dying brother, 2002. She lives in New York. 1800s, descended from African slaves and white falls in love, and in the process discovers sailors, Mer, a plantation slave and doctor with herself. Distance healing hands, Thais, a beauty from Alexandria sold into slavery and prostitution and Ezili. The The Great Fire is a deeply observed story of love Jack Hodgins novel interweaves their experiences and braids and separation, of disillusion and recovered Nominated by vivid acts of brutality with passionate unions of humanity. Vancouver Public Library, Canada spirit and flesh.

Shirley Hazzard is the author, most recently, of Nalo Hopkinson was born in Jamaica and grew Greene on Capri, a memoir of Graham Greene, up in Guyana, Trinidad and Canada. She is the and several works of fiction, including The author of Brown Girl in the Ring, Midnight Robber Evening of the Holiday, The Bay of Noon, and The and Skin Folk, a collection of short fiction and Transit of Venus, winner of the 1981 National the editor of Mojo: Conjure Stories. She lives in Book Critics Circle Award. The Great Fire Toronto, Canada. won the 2003 National Book Award. Born in Australia she now lives in New York City. Due Preparations for the Plague

Willenbrock — Shortlisted Janette Turner Hospital Nominated by Christoph Hein State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia Translated from the German by Philip Boehm Cape Breton Regional Library, Sydney, Canada Nominated by Deichmanske Bibliotek, Oslo, Norway Due Preparations for the Plague is a taut and confronting novel that propels us into In the new unified Germany, Bernard the chaos of terror and the cruelty – and Willenbrock, an East German engineer and unexpected hope – of survival. latecomer to the free-market, is the proud owner of a thriving used-car dealership with a Lowell tries not to think about the past and steady stream of cash-only clients from Eastern hijacking that killed his mother. Samantha, Europe. The business practically runs itself, on the other hand, cannot let go. As a child leaving Willenbrock free to spice up his days she survived the hijacking of Air France Flight with extramarital adventures. 64, and as an adult she obsessively digs for answers. It is the death of Lowell’s father, and Willenbrock’s self-satisfaction appears his legacy of a blue sports bag crammed with impregnable. Yet little by little, a series of ever- documents and videotapes, that finally brings more menacing incidents occurs: an attempted Distance is a rich blend of tragedy and comedy, Lowell and Samantha together and unravels break-in, the theft of several cars, a vicious wise and irreverent, deeply moving, with the interconnections between victims and beating - his innermost certainties are eroded. vivid settings ranging from the frozen banks perpetrators, saved and damned. No amount of locks and latches, it seems, can

website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 2005 Nominations 14

Janette Turner Hospital was born in Among the witnesses are a number of dead edited a major five-volume collection of new Melbourne, Australia, in 1942. She is the author people, the novelist, a Lebanese cedar, a Maori fiction and non-fiction, called the Te Ao of six novels, including The Ivory Swing and wisteria, a footbridge, and a gorgeous Algerian Marama series. the award-winning Oyster and three short story knife (probably the murder weapon). Cosmo is collections. She is professor of Creative Writing the only character whose voice is never heard, Deafening — Shortlisted and Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the but his portrait is gradually sketched out and University of South Carolina, USA. coloured in by the stories and memories of Frances Itani others in his village. Nominated by The Kite Runner Halifax Regional Library, Canada Nancy Huston was born in Calgary, Canada. Toronto Public Library, Canada Khaled Hosseini In 1973 she went to Paris for a year of study Vancouver Public Library, Canada Nominated by abroad and has remained there ever since. She Gateshead Libraries & Arts, England is the author of eight previous novels including Set on the eve of the Great War and spanning Stockholm Public Library, Sweden The Goldberg Variations and The Mark of the Angel, two continents, Deafening tells the story of Cleveland Public Library, USA all but two of which she has translated into Grania, a young deaf woman living in small- Lincoln Library, Springfield, USA English. town Ontario, who falls in love with Jim, a Multnomah County Library, Portland, USA hearing man. In wonderment, they create a new What I Loved emotional vocabulary of sound and silence. As the First World War explodes across Europe, Siri Hustvedt Jim leaves to become a stretcher-bearer on the Nominated by Western Front, a place filled with unforgiving Århus Kommunes Biblioteker, Denmark noise, violence and death. Through this long Stadtbibliothek Bremen, Germany war of attrition, Jim and Grania attempt to Stadtbücherei Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany sustain their love in a world as brutal as it is Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek, Norway beautiful. Glasgow Libraries Information & Learning, Scotland Stockholm Public Library, Sweden Frances Itani is the author of five acclaimed short-story collections, including Leaning, Leo’s story, which spans twenty-five years, Leaning Over Water and Poached Eggs on Toast, follows the evolution of the growing three poetry collections, and a children’s book. involvement between his family and Bill’s - an intricate constellation of attachments that Deafening, her first novel, is based loosely includes the two men, their wives, and their on the life of her grandmother. She lives in children. Ottawa, Canada.

Intimate in tone and seductive in its complexity, Confessions of a Gambler the novel moves seamlessly from inner worlds Rayda Jacobs to outer worlds, from the deeply private to the public, from physical infirmity to cultural Nominated by illness. Part family novel, part psychological Cape Town Central Library, South Africa thriller, What I Loved is a beautifully written exploration of love, loss, and betrayal - and of a “The first thing I have to confess is that I’m a Muslim man’s attempt to make sense of the world and woman. I’m forty-nine. I wear two scarves…when you go on living. pass me on the street, you won’t even glance my way. I’m one of those robed women who appear to be going Siri Hustvedt, born and raised in Minnesota, nowhere. The second thing I have to confess is that I The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the USA, is the author of a book of poetry and like risk” unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and two previous novels, The Blindfold and The From the moment she opens her mouth, the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner Enchantment of Lily Dahl. She lives in Brooklyn Beeda is honest about the double life she is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country with her husband, Paul Auster. leads. The story that unfolds is one of a daring, that is in the process of being destroyed. It independent-minded woman with a sizzling is about the power of reading, the price of Sky Dancer sensuality, who is also a pious mother of four betrayal, and the possibility of redemption, and sons - a mother who challenges the prejudice it is also about the power of fathers over sons Witi Ihimaera of her community when her favourite son – their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. Nominated by contracts Aids. Auckland City Libraries, New Zealand Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Rayda Jacobs, born in Cape Town, South Afghanistan, the son of a diplomat whose Feisty young Skylark O’Shea is on holiday with Africa, moved to Canada in 1968. She published family received political asylum in the United her mother at a town on the coast. Strange her first work The Middle Children, a collection States in 1980. The Kite Runner is his first novel. things begin to happen. What is the threat of short stories, in 1994 before returning to facing the town and the birds of the forest? South Africa in 1995. She is the author of three An Adoration Where do the two old charismatic Maori previous novels, Eyes of the Sky, The Slave Book women Hoki and Bella fit in? Nancy Huston and Sachs Street. Translated from the French by the author Skylark becomes embroiled in an extraordinary Peyton Amberg Nominated by journey. Soon she is testing her wits, her life and the fate of all she loves in a race of Bibliothèques Municipales Geneva, Switzerland Tama Janowitz breathtaking dimension… a dazzling trip The characters of An Adoration participate in through Maori mythology. Nominated by a legal hearing of a highly singular variety, Veria Central Public Library, Greece unfolding outside of real time and place. They Witi Ihimaera is a New Zealand Maori and a Peyton Amberg is a young woman growing each give testimony in front of a mysterious major Pacific writer. He now lives in Auckland ever restless in her marriage, and ever hopeful magistrate who turns out to be none other than and lectures in the English Department at the that the next bed will produce someone more the reader herself or himself, presenting their University of Auckland. His novels include The exciting. As she moves from man to man, she respective and often contradictory versions of Uncle’s Story and The Matriarch. He has also slowly but surely loses her youthfulness, her the death – and life – of a certain Cosmo. website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 15 2005 Nominations good looks, even her sanity, as her paramours My Little Boat memory of a catastrophe years before, Gogol become rougher and the sex more dangerous Ganguli knows only that he suffers the burden Mariam Karim of his heritage as well as his odd name. Peyton Amberg is nasty, funny, jaundiced, Nominated by sarcastic, searingly honest, and mesmerizing India International Centre Library, New Delhi, India With sensitivity and wit, The Namesake from beginning to end. describes the means by which we slowly, Nasreen, daughter of a famous poet and sometimes painfully, come to define ourselves. feminist, wife of the proprietor and editor of Tama Janowitz is the author of eight previous the local newspaper in small town Rahimganj, works including the bestselling Slaves of New Jhumpa Lahiri was born 1967 in London, is adrift, no longer knowing where she England, and raised in Rhode Island USA. Her York and The Male Cross-Dresser Support Group. belongs. But her life will soon intersect with debut collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won the She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her that of the town she has never completely husband and daughter. understood. An attempted murder in the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and many other local church brings Rahimganj to the brink of awards. The Namesake is her first novel. She The Known World — Shortlisted communal conflict, the private and the public lives in New York with her husband and son. collide, and tragedy unfolds. Edward P. Jones Shutter Island Nominated by My Little Boat examines the loneliness of those Dennis Lehane Lincoln Library, Springfield, USA without a place they can truly call home, and Minneapolis Public Library, USA eloquently examines complex issues of identity: Nominated by Multnomah County Library, Portland, USA Kansas City Public Library, USA Richmond Public Library, USA the relevance of an individual life in society, the power of history and faith, the burden of memory and love. Summer, 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels Henry Townsend, a black farmer, boot maker, has come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe and former slave becomes proprietor of his Mariam Karim was born in Lucknow, India Hospital for the Criminally Insane to find an own plantation -- as well as of his own slaves. escaped patient, a murderess named Rachel When he dies, his widow, Caldonia, succumbs and educated at Delhi and Paris. She has travelled widely in India and Europe. She writes Solando. But nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is to profound grief, and things begin to fall what it seems. And neither is Teddy Daniels. apart at their plantation. Beyond the Townsend for children under the name Mariam Karim- estate, the known world also unravels. Ranging Ahlawat. She currently lives in Delhi, with her son. Is he there to find a missing patient? Or has he seamlessly between the past and future and been sent to look into rumours of Ashecliffe’s back again to the present, The Known World The Fifth Book of Peace radical approach to psychiatry? The closer weaves together the lives of freed and enslaved Teddy and his partner, Chuck, get to the truth, blacks, whites, and Indians -- and allows all Maxine Hong Kingston the more elusive it becomes, and the more of us a deeper understanding of the enduring they begin to believe that they may never leave multidimensional world created by the Nominated by Shutter Island. Because someone is trying to institution of slavery. Jafet Library- American University of Beirut, Lebanon drive them insane…

Edward P. Jones won the PEN/Hemingway The Fifth Book of Peace, a mixed genre work, Dennis Lehane is the author of Mystic River, Award and was a finalist for the National Book is written in four sections, the third of which Prayers for Rain, Gone, Baby, Gone, Sacred, ‘Water’ is a re-creation of the author’s novel, Award for his debut collection of stories, Lost in Darkness, Take My Hand and A Drink Before the which was lost in a fire. It tells the lush and the City. The Known World, his first novel, won War. He lives in the Boston area, USA. the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. compelling story of the Chinese-American Wittman Ah Sing and his wife, Taña – The Fortress of Solitude — Shortlisted People Like Ourselves Californian artists who flee to Hawaii to evade the draft during the Vietnam War. Wittman Jonathan Lethem Pamela Jooste and Taña help to create an official sanctuary for Nominated by Nominated by deserters and GIs who’ve returned devastated by their experiences in Vietnam. Houston Public Library, USA Tshwane Library and Information Service, Pretoria, Miami-Dade Public Library System, USA South Africa Milwaukee Public Library, USA Maxine Hong Kingston is Senior Lecturer for Julia belongs to the inner circle of Creative Writing at the University of California, This is the story of two boys, Dylan Ebdus and Johannesburg high society. But in the new Berkeley. She has earned numerous awards for Mingus Rude. They are friends and neighbours, South Africa, the days of tea on the lawn her memoirs and fiction, The Woman Warrior, but because Dylan is white and Mingus is are over and white ‘madams’ of the affluent China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, and Hawai’i One black, their friendship is not simple. This is the suburbs like Julia have to adjust their lives Summer. story of their Brooklyn neighbourhood, which is almost exclusively black despite the first People Like Ourselves takes a wry look at the The Namesake whispers of something that will become known brave new world that is the ‘African miracle’ as “gentrification.” today. ‘Closure’ is the catchword of the day, but Jhumpa Lahiri here it is applied not to truth and reconciliation Nominated by This is the story of joyous afternoons of as much as to getting rid of your husband and State Library of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia stickball and dreaded years of schoolyard moving to a guarded, gated community. Denver Public Library, USA extortion. This is the story of belonging to New Hampshire State Library, Concord, USA a society that doesn’t accept you. This is the Pamela Jooste was born in Cape Town, where Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs, USA story of prison and of college, of Brooklyn Richmond Public Library, USA she still lives. She is the author of four critically and Berkeley, of soul and rap, of murder and acclaimed novels: Frieda and Min, Like Water in redemption. Wild Places, People Like Ourselves and the award- The Namesake deals with the themes of the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the winning Dance with a Poor Man’s Daughter. Jonathan Lethem was born in New York. He conflicts of assimilation, and, most poignantly, the tangled ties between generations. It takes is the author of the novels Gun, With Occasional the Ganguli family from their tradition- Music, Amnesia Moon, As She Climbed Across the bound life in Calcutta through their fraught Table, Girl in Landscape and Motherless Brooklyn, transformation into Americans. The task of as well as a collection of stories, The Wall of the naming their first son betrays the vexed results Sky, The Wall of the Eye. He currently lives in of bringing old ways to the new world. Named Brooklyn, New York. for a Russian writer by his Indian parents in website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 2005 Nominations 16

The King is Dead The Way to Paradise is a study of passion, The Broken Cedar ambition and the determined pursuit of Jim Lewis Martin Malone greatness in the face of illness, death and Nominated by conservative forces. Nominated by Waterford County Library, Ireland Limerick City Library, Ireland Mario Vargas Llosa was born in 1936 in Peru. Khalil has kept the secret so long it seems now The King Is Dead is the story of two men–a With novels including The War of the End of the part of him, growing alongside the cancer father and a son–whose contrasting lives reflect World, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter and most the dramatic shifts in the last half-century of that will soon steal him away from his beloved recently The Feast of the Goat, he has established wife and troubled daughter. His small shop on American life. It is a tale of generations, of the an international reputation as one of Latin true meaning of origins. the Israeli-Lebanon border has sustained him America’s most important authors. through years of turbulent conflict, but it has not protected him from the horrors of war; Walter Selby is a hero of World War II, now aide Too Beautiful to Die to the new governor of Tennessee. But when he from the sight of the UN peacekeeper, lynched and brutalised. And now, just as he must resigns in disillusionment and comes home to Glenville Lovell an even more devastating blow, he snaps and prepare for his final days, a young Irishman commits a shocking crime. Now we turn to our Nominated by walks into Khalil’s shop, the murdered man’s National Library Service of Barbados, Bridgetown, son. All he wants to know is where his father is own times – from the father to his son as Frank Barbados sets out across the country in pursuit of the true buried. But more than bones have been buried story of his family. A powerful novel of love, these long years, and the secrets of the past are Blades Overstreet is a black ex-cop at odds with often better left unearthed. madness, murder, and redemption, of politics the NYPD, now working to help a beautiful and justice. soap-opera star named Precious find her father. A former Military Policeman, Martin Malone is That assignment quickly turns sour when the author of After Kafra and Us, which won the Jim Lewis was raised in New York and London. Blades stumbles on the murdered body of an John B.Keane/ Sunday Independent Award in He is the author of two previous novels, Sister FBI agent and becomes the target of an FBI/ 2001. He lives in Co.Kildare, Ireland. and Why the Tree Loves the Ax. He lives in Texas, NYPD manhunt. Pursued by the FBI, a pariah USA. to his former ‘brothers’ in the NYPD, Blades sets out to find the killer before he himself has Between Lives The Coffee Trader to take the rap – or worse. He winds his way K.S. Maniam through New York’s Caribbean community David Liss looking for answers – and solace for his Nominated by Nominated by tortured soul. National Library of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Tweebronnen Openbare Bibliotheek, Leuven, Malaysia Belgium Glenville Lovell was born in Barbados and Sumitra, a social worker, meets Sellamma, the currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. He is the old woman she has to get into a welfare home. Amsterdam, 1659 - Miguel Lienzo must find author of several prize-winning plays as well as When Sellamma refuses to budge, Sumitra a way to restore his wealth and reputation. two novels, Song of Night and Fire in the Canes. He enters into a partnership with a seductive besieges her by sitting in front of her every day. Sellamma finally relents and lets Sumitra into Dutchwoman who offers him one last chance at The Way the Crow Flies success—a daring plot to corner the market of her memories and treats her as her long-lost sister. Sumitra finds herself under the spell of an astonishing new commodity called “coffee.” Ann-Marie MacDonald To succeed, Miguel must risk everything he the old woman’s personality and memories. Nominated by values and test the limits of his commercial After Sellamma’s death, Sumitra, with the Vancouver Public Library, Canada guile, facing not only the chaos of the markets support of her colleagues, refuses to surrender the land Sellamma has left her. and the greed of his competitors, but also a The early sixties, a time of optimism infused powerful enemy who will stop at nothing to with the excitement of the space race and Between Lives is an insightful journey through see him ruined. A novel filled with humour, overshadowed by the menace of the Cold War, imagination and mystery. memory, self-scrutiny, and love. It is tender and is filtered through the rich imagination of eight frank, and an invitation to live fully with each year old Madeleine McCarthy, posted with other and with the land. David Liss is the author of A Conspiracy of Paper, her family to a quiet air force base in Ontario. winner of the 2000 Edgar Award for Best First Then tragedy strikes, and a very local murder Novel. He lives in San Antonio, USA with his K.S. Maniam is a short story writer and intersects with global forces. As the tension novelist. His stories have appeared in local wife and daughter, and can be reached via his in the McCarthy’s household builds, Jack, her and overseas anthologies, notably in Virtual website www.davidliss.com. father, must decide where his loyalties lie, Lotus: Modern Fiction of Southeast, Kunapipi, and and Madeleine learns about the ambiguity The Way to Paradise of human morality – a lesson that will only Rim of Fire: Stories from the Pacific Rim. He lives become clear when the quest for truth, and the in Subang Jaya, and devotes his time fully to Mario Vargas Llosa killer, is renewed twenty years later. writing. Translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer Nominated by The Way the Crow Flies evokes the pain, The Return of the Dancing Master Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogota, Colombia confusion and humour of childhood in a Henning Mankell Jafet Library – American University of Beirut, perilous adult world. Lebanon Translated from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson Wojedwódzka i Miejska Biblioteca Publiczna, Lodz, Nominated by Poland Ann-Marie MacDonald is a novelist, playwright and actor. She is the author of the acclaimed Copenhagen Central Library, Denmark play Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) In 1844, Flora Tristan embarked on a tour of Herbert Molin, a retired police officer, is living and the novel, Fall On Your Knees. She lives in France to campaign for workers’ and women’s alone in a remote cottage in the vast forest of Toronto, Canada. rights. In 1891, her grandson set sail for Tahiti, northern Sweden. He has no close friends, no determined to escape civilisation and seek out close neighbours, and by the time his body is inspiration to paint his primitive masterpieces. found, Molin is almost unrecognisable. Flora died before her grandson was born, but their travels and obsessions unravel side by side Stefan Lindman, a police officer on extended in this absorbing novel. leave, hears of the death of his former colleague and, to take his mind off his own problems, decides to involve himself in the case. What website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 17 2005 Nominations he discovers, to his horror and disbelief, is a From the documented facts of a real life, Deon Meyer lives and works in Capetown, network of evil almost unimaginable in this Colum McCann has created a work of fiction. South Africa, where he both writes and works remote district, and one that seems impossible This history of a life gets under the skin of in the design of Internet web sites. He has to link to Molin’s death. its hero, into his head, under the skin of recently re-married and now has whole or part- the people around him, into the heart of the ownership in four children. Henning Mankell was born in Stockholm in era he came to represent, into the truth of 1948. He is the prize-winning author of eight what it means to dance. It is ambitious. It is Astonishing Splashes of Colour novels in the Inspector Wallander Series, which also controlled, passionate and extravagant have been translated into many languages. He – perfectly matched in style to the personality Clare Morrall was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger in 2001 for of its central character, the dancer Rudolf Nominated by his novel Sidetracked. Nureyev. Nureyev was famous, not just for his Liverpool Libraries & Information Services, England performances on stage, but also for his antics San Diego Public Library, USA Property as an international mongrel, a social force, a symbol, and an enigma. Caught in an over-vivid world, Kitty feels Valerie Martin haunted by her ‘child that never was’. As Nominated by Colum McCann was born in Dublin in 1965. children all round become emblems of hope, Warsaw Public Library, Poland In 1994 he won the Rooney Prize for Irish longing and grief, she begins to understand Literature for his first book, Fishing the Sloe- the reasons for her shaky sense of self. What Set in the surreal heat of the antebellum South Black River. Other novels include Songdogs and family mystery makes Kitty’s four brothers so during a slave rebellion, Property brings to the This Side of Brightness. He lives in New York with vague about her mother’s life? And why does page a voice rarely heard in American fiction: his wife and three young children. Dad splash paint on canvas rather than answer the voice of a woman slaveholder. Manon his daughter’s questions? On the edges of her Gaudet is pretty and petulant, self-absorbed Who Sleeps with Katz dreams, Kitty glimpses the kaleidoscope van and bored. She has come to a sugar plantation that took her sister Dinah away – is it a link to north of New Orleans as a bride, bringing with Todd McEwen her indistinct childhood? her a prized piece of property, the young slave Nominated by Sarah, only to see Sarah become her husband’s Aberdeen Library & Information Services, Scotland Identity struggles in a large family, the sadness mistress and bear his child. As the whispers of lost children, the pull of desperation – and of a slave rebellion grow louder and more What is a man to do when the doctor delivers the optimism of an eccentric, loving marriage threatening, Manon speaks to us of her past bad news? This man calls a friend and sets – these are the themes of this compelling and and her present, her longings and dreams – an out down the avenues and streets of New York witty debut. uncensored, pitch-perfect voice from the heart to meet him. He walks, he runs, he sits, he of moral darkness. remembers. Every corner, every block has a Clare Morrall lives and works in Birmingham, memory: women, food, drink, friendship, the England. Astonishing Splashes of Colour, Valerie Martin’s works include the novels comedy of office life and of sexual success and shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize, is Mary Reilly, The Great Divorce, and Italian failure. It’s as though the towers of Manhattan her first novel. It reflects her interest in the Fever. Her most recent book, Salvation, is a have become a shelf of books, each to be dynamics of motherless family life and in reconsideration of St. Francis’s life. Property opened and regretfully read for the last time. synaesthesia – a condition in which emotions won the 2003 Orange Prize for Fiction. A native It is a day to remember and a journey, truly, of are seen as colours. of New Orleans, she now lives in upstate New a lifetime. This tender, funny novel is a salute York. to a great city’s enchantment and the sweet, My Fellow Skin frustrating mysteries of life. Dancer Erwin Mortier Todd McEwen was born in California, USA in Translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke Colum McCann 1953. He worked in broadcasting, theatre and Nominated by Nominated by the rare book trade before settling in Scotland Openbare Bibliotheek Eindhoven, The Netherlands Dublin City Public Libraries, Ireland in 1981. His previous novels are Fisher’s The Association of Public Libraries, The Hague, The Princess Grace Irish Library, Monaco-Ville, Monaco Hornpipe, McX and Arithmetic. Netherlands City of Johannesburg Library & Information Services, South Africa Heart of the Hunter As Anton grows up, each tentative step on the path to adulthood brings knowledge, Deon Meyer understanding and responsibility. Through Translated from the Afrikaans by K. L. Seegers the eyes of this impressionable and observant young boy, we witness the loss of innocence Nominated by Tshwane Library and Information Service, Pretoria, as he comes to terms with time’s passing and South Africa the inevitability of death. Anton finds solace in his friendship with fellow classmate Willem, Thobela “Tiny” Mpayipheli has a past littered and believes he has found a way to deal with with violence and death: an assassin’s past that his increasingly uneasy relationship with life. he never wants to face again. All he desires is But this bond with Willem introduces a new a quiet life with the woman he loves and her emotional hurdle for Anton, an awakening love child. But then his best friend is kidnapped, that gives him his own identity and envelops and suddenly he finds himself riding a stolen him like a second skin. motorbike across the harsh plains of the South African Karoo. His destination is Lusaka, Erwin Mortier was born in Flanders in 1965. thousands of miles away in Zambia. His Marcel, his debut novel, won numerous literary mission is to deliver a computer disk. He has prizes in the Netherlands and Flanders and exactly 72 hours to do it or his friend will die. acclaim throughout Europe. He works in Ghent From being the hunter, Tiny is now the hunted. at the Museum of the History of Psychiatry and Every mile brings a new danger, a new threat to also as a journalist. those he loves.

website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 2005 Nominations 18

Siegfried specifically on Tess, friend of the victim, and her family. As the police go about their routine Harry Mulisch investigation, Tess’s daily world begins to Nominated by unravel. Suddenly nothing is certain, the Bibliothèque Municipale de Lille, France mundane becomes charged with significance, Gemeentebibliotheek Rotterdam, The Netherlands established relationships begin to crumble and Gemeentebibliotheek Utrecht, The Netherlands Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, The Netherlands places that once were safe are safe no longer. Openbare Bibliotheek Eindhoven, The Netherlands The Association of Public Libraries, The Hague, The Julie Myerson was born in Nottingham, Netherlands England in 1960. She is the author of four previous novels, Sleepwalking, The Touch, Me A renowned author is in Vienna to promote his and the Fat Man and Laura Blundy. She lives in new masterwork, The Invention of Love. During London. one interview he is asked a question that will come to haunt him: can a modern-day novelist The Time Traveler’s Wife write of the horrors of war and, in particular, Adolf Hitler? Audrey Niffenegger Nominated by He is then approached by an elderly couple, Denver Public Library, USA the Falks, who as servants at Hitler’s Bavarian LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library, retreat looked after Eva Braun. They wish to tell Tallahassee, USA him a painful story of their own but make him Milwaukee Public Library, USA promise that he will keep their secret until after Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County, their deaths. Cincinnati, USA Richland County Public Library, Columbia, USA Siegfried is a shocking and deeply moving This is the story of Clare and Henry who have evocation of the human heart and the burden Olaf Olafsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, of the past. known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when in 1962. He is the author of two previous Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty- novels, The Journey Home and Absolution. He Harry Mulisch was born in Holland. His one. Impossible but true, because Henry has lives in New York City with his wife and two novels include The Discovery of Heaven, and The Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically sons. Procedure. His bestselling novel, The Assault, his genetic clock resets and he finds himself was translated into twenty languages and made misplaced in time, pulled to moments of Presumption of Death into a film that won an Oscar in 1987 for Best emotional gravity from his life, past and Foreign Film. He lives in Amsterdam. future. His disappearances are spontaneous, Perri O’Shaughnessy his experiences unpredictable, alternately Nominated by The Miracle Merchant harrowing and amusing. The Gambia National Library, Banjul, The Gambia Wahome Mutahi and Wahome Karengo The novel depicts the effects of time travel Attorney Nina Reilly returns home to put her Nominated by on Henry and Clare’s marriage and their life in order and move in with her lover, Paul Kenya National Library Service, Nairobi, Kenya passionate love for each other, as the story van Wagoner. Carmel Valley, however, is not unfolds from both points of view. quite the sleepy town Nina remembers. Lately, Apostle Paul Meshak Mpevu of the African someone has been setting seemingly random Church of Modern Apostles is preacher par Audrey Niffenegger is a visual artist and forest fires. The last fire proved fatal, and excellence. Crowds pack his crusades to professor in the Interdisciplinary Book Arts Wish, the son of Nina’s ex-assistant, Sandy receive divine guidance and healings. However, MFA Program at the Columbia College Chicago Whitefeather, stands accused of murder. In the Apostle has a craving for things worldly Center for Book and Paper Arts. The Time order to gain the locals’ trust, and against her – money and influence. To achieve his ends Traveler’s Wife is her first novel. better judgement, Nina must work alongside he is in league with pretenders, extortionists, Paul. Together, they find themselves in a race drug dealers and cartels of all descriptions. Walking into the Night against time to find the truth, before the real It takes the efforts of one Dhlakama, private killer’s motives become all too shockingly investigator and former policeman, to unearth Olaf Olafsson apparent. the mighty Apostle. But not before a number Translated from the Icelandic by the author of lives have been lost and others rendered Perri O’Shaughnessy is the pen name for two useless…. Nominated by Public Library of Westman Islands, Iceland sisters, Pamela and Mary O’Shaughnessy, who Hartford Public Library, USA live in Hawai’i and California, respectively. Wahome Mutahi and Wahome Karengo, They are the author of three previous novels, well known for their prolific journalistic and For twenty years Christian Benediktsson has Move to Strike, Writ of Execution, and Unfit to theatre exploits, join forces in this blockbuster led a quiet life as William Randolph Hearst’s Practice. Readers can visit the website at that explores religious hypocrisy and butler. His days are filled with the rituals of www.perrio.com indoctrination. Hearst’s life. But in his most private thoughts and memories, he relives another life: his Judge Savage Something Might Happen abandonment of his wife and children in Iceland for an actress in New York; a reckless Tim Parks Julie Myerson affair, a tragic death and financial ruin. No one Nominated by Nominated by else knows the secret of the man he once was Dunedin Public Libraries, New Zealand Limerick City Library, Ireland - husband, father, businessman, lover - and, ultimately, even he will choose to forget that Day by day Crown Court Judge Daniel Savage One night in October in a small seaside town this person ever existed. presides over those whose double lives have in Suffolk, a woman is brutally murdered. been exposed. He must be above suspicion. Something Might Happen is not a murder But as the most tangled lives are ironed out in mystery. There are clues, false trails, detectives, court, Daniel Savage’s own existence descends all the paraphernalia of the whodunnit, into a mess of violence and confusion. Why but Myerson’s concern is with the effect of does his daughter refuse to move to the the murder on an ordinary community and website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 19 2005 Nominations spacious new house he and his wife have In the Wake The novel traces both their histories; Solomon, bought? Why does a young Korean woman a former soldier, escapes the horrors of a Per Petterson keep phoning him to beg for help? war-ravaged African country before entering Translated from the Norwegian by Anne Born England illegally; Dorothy, the product of A hero by chance only to be overwhelmed with Nominated by a troubled childhood and a messy divorce, disgrace, Daniel Savage struggles to keep some Deichmanske Bibliotek, Oslo, Norway is fleeing the repercussions of a desperate kind of grip on the world. Solvberget KF - Stavanger Bibliotek og Kulturhus, obsession. Norway

Tim Parks lives near Verona, Italy with his Arvid has lost his parents and his two younger Caryl Phillips was born in St. Kitts, West Indies wife and three children. His novel Europa was brothers in a ferry accident. Only he and his and reared in England. He is the author of three shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His most brother are left alive. He is writing a novel previous books of non-fiction, and six novels, recent book was A Season with Verona. about his father but it is stalled, the grief including Crossing the River and The Nature of and guilt he feels at having survived are too Blood, and has edited two anthologies. He lives The Dante Club overwhelming. Then slowly, the memories in New York, USA. begin to return: of his childhood, of his father, Matthew Pearl of his two younger brothers. He begins to write Benjamin, My Son Nominated by again. New York Public Library, USA Geoffrey Philp Poignant, restrained, and at times unbearably Nominated by In 1865 Boston, the members of the Dante moving, In the Wake is informed by terrible Jamaica Library Service, Kingston, Jamaica Club are finishing America’s first translation tragedy, and by man’s sense of the beauty of of The Divine Comedy and preparing to unveil the natural world, at times our only source of When Jason Stewart sees a newsflash reporting Dante’s remarkable visions to the New World. solace. the murder of his politician stepfather, he The authorities at Harvard College are fighting returns to his native Jamaica for the funeral. to keep Dante in obscurity, believing that Per Petterson was born in 1952 and published There the murder is regarded as part of a the infiltration of foreign superstitions into his first work, a volume of short stories, in bipartisan war that has torn the country American minds will prove as corrupting as the 1987. Since then he has written three novels, apart. But when Jason meets his old mentor, immigrants arriving at Boston Harbour. which have established his reputation as one of Papa Legba, the Rastafarian hints at a darker Norway’s best fiction writers. truth. Now Jason must confront former A series of murders erupts through Boston and acquaintances and earlier versions of himself Cambridge. The Dante Club members realise A Distant Shore when for example, he betrayed his friend that the gruesome killings are modelled on Reuben. Also he suffers grave doubts about his the descriptions of Hell’s punishments from Caryl Phillips identity: there is the Jason shaped by middle- Dante’s Inferno. They must find the killer before class colonial traditions and the Benjamin who Nominated by the authorities discover their secret. National Library Service of Barbados, Bridgetown, was once close to Reuben and Papa Legba. Barbados Matthew Pearl is the editor of the new Modern Tampere City Library, Finland Geoffrey Philp was born in Jamaica. He now Library edition of Dante’s Inferno, translated San Diego Public Library, USA lives and works in Miami, USA. He is the by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He currently author of Uncle Obadiah and the Alien, Florida lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Dante Bound, Hurricane Center and Xango Music. Club is his first novel. He can be reached via his website at www.thedanteclub.com. Vernon God Little

White Lies DBC Pierre Nominated by Dexter Petley Frederiksberg Kommunes Biblioteker, Denmark Nominated by Newcastle Libraries & Information Service, England The Free State Provincial Library Service, Leipzig Stadtbibliothek, Germany Bloemfontein, South Africa Stadtbücherei Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany Zentral-und Landesbibliothek Berlin, Germany Waterford County Library, Ireland Norman didn’t believe in love at first sight Deichmanske Bibliotek, Oslo, Norway until he read about ‘Joy, The Gold Panning Missionary’ in an African magazine and set out Fifteen-year-old Vernon Gregory Little is in to find her. A decade on and many thousands trouble. And it has something to do with of miles from Africa, Joy has walked out leaving the recent massacre of 16 students at his him to sift the wreckage of their marriage. He high school. Soon the quirky backwater of decides to go back to Africa – not for love this Martirio is flooded with wannabe CNN hacks time, but to settle old scores. all too keen to lay the blame for the killings at Vernon’s feet. As the media net tightens White Lies carefully laces Norman’s African and and the twisted desires of the townsfolk for French stories to create a delicate portrait of an a scapegoat reach fever pitch, Vernon finds Englishman abroad, a brutal depiction of the himself drawn into a series of increasingly corruption that colonialism breeds and, above bizarre circumstances. all, a brilliant, bittersweet love story. Vernon God Little’s depiction of innocence and Dexter Petley lives in a caravan in the Burgundy simple humanity (all seasoned with a dash mountains in France, writing, fishing and Dorothy and Solomon live in a new housing estate on the outskirts of an English village. He of dysfunctional profanity) in an evil world is gardening. He has published two previous never less than astonishing. novels, Little Nineveh and Joyride. He is also a is black, an immigrant. She is white, a recently retired music teacher. They are both solitary, regular contributor to Waterlog, The Magazine for DBC Pierre was raised in Mexico and has the Absolute Angler. reticent outsiders. When their paths briefly cross, neither of them can know that it will be also travelled extensively. He currently lives in the last true human contact either will have. Leitrim, Ireland. Vernon God Little, which won the 2003 Man Booker Prize, is his first novel.

website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 2005 Nominations 20

Recessional for Grace Then he is found beaten nearly to death. He River of the Brokenhearted knows who did it, but he’s not talking. It is up Marguerite Poland David Adams Richards to Detective Nerese Ammons—a childhood Nominated by acquaintance from the projects—to get Ray to Nominated by The Free State Provincial Library Service, tell her what happened. Nerese has to not only Halifax Regional Library, Canada Bloemfontein, South Africa find the perpetrator of this assault but also Toronto Public Library, Canada Tshwane Library and Information Service, Pretoria, South Africa understand what kind of victim is more afraid of the truth than of his potential murderer. Spanning generations, River of the Brokenhearted explores the life and legacy of Janie McCleary, When a postgraduate student happens upon a brave Irish Catholic girl who dared to marry a Richard Price is the author of six previous an obscure document by a long dead academic, man from the Church of England. Their union novels, including the national best sellers she knows, instinctively, that she has found a is quickly deemed scandalous, and when her Freedomland and Clockers. He has also written subject for her doctoral thesis. husband dies everyone in town turns against screenplays, including Sea of Love, Ransom and her. Her solution is to open one of the first She is given access to his papers, his catalogue The Color of Money. He lives in New York City movie theatres in North America, which she of index cards and field notes recorded in a with his wife, and his two daughters. runs with such success that she manages to remote valley in South Africa in 1946. The ostracize herself even further. She is a pioneer linguist becomes the biographer. She begins Shot before the age of feminism, and the burden of to reconstruct the life and the lost love of a her salty individualism will shape the lives of man long forgotten and, in doing so, restore Sarah Quigley her children and grandchildren. herself. Fact and supposition, instinct and Nominated by intuition become blurred, making a new Christchurch City Libraries, New Zealand David Adams Richards was born in 1950 in truth… New Brunswick, Canada. His most recent In the time it takes a bullet to travel through novel, Mercy Among the Children, won the 2000 Recessional for Grace is a love story and an her left ear and into the back wall of the Ellis Giller Prize. His other novels include Nights exploration of the process of creation. Street donut store, Lena – star of the stand- below Station Street, which won the Governor up comedy circuit – has a revelation. Mainly General’s Award, Evening Snow Will Bring Such that she has never found comedy particularly Marguerite Poland is the author of three Peace, and The Bay of Love and Sorrows. previous novels, Train to Doringbult, which was funny… shortlisted for the CNA Literary Award, Shades, No One Will See Me Cry shortlisted for the M-Net Fiction Award and Meet Lena Domanski, daughter of Polish immigrants, professional funny woman. Iron Love. Cristina Rivera- Garza Trading punch lines for snapshots, she makes Translated by from the Spanish by Andrew Hurley The Time of Our Singing for Alaska – where she meets a mysterious tracker and a speechless child, and discovers Nominated by that loss can sometimes be gain. Biblioteca Daniel Cosio Villegas of El Colegio de Richard Powers Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico Nominated by State Library of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Sarah Quigley was born in New Zealand, has Stadt-und Universitätsbibliothek, Bern, Switzerland a D. Phil. from Oxford University, England and is now based in Berlin, where she was the 1939 - David Strom, a German Jewish inaugural CNZ/DAAD Literary Fellow for 2000. émigré scientist, meets Delia Daley, a young Shot is her first novel. Philadelphia Negro studying to be a concert singer. Their love of music draws them Waxwings together, and they marry. They vow to raise their children beyond time, beyond identity, Jonathan Raban steeped in song. But their three children must Nominated by survive America’s brutal here and now. M.I. Rudomino State Library for Foreign Literature, Moscow, Russia Jonah, Joseph, and Ruth grow up during the Civil Rights era, come of age in the riot-torn Waxwings is set in Seattle at the turn of the 1960s, and live out their adulthoods through millennium, when the high-tech Gold Rush, the racially retrenched late century. As a with its myriad virtual alternatives, threatens to polarised America threatens to tear the family overwhelm the actual world. Two immigrants, apart, only their deep, shared love of song Tom Janeway and Chick - an illegal alien – find stands any hope of preserving them. themselves strangely dependent on each other.

Richard Powers has been the recipient of a Waxwings depicts the social realities of a 1999 Lannan Literary Award and a MacArthur boomtown, as well as the illusions that distract Fellowship. He is the author of seven previous its inhabitants from the most basic human novels, including Plowing the Dark, Gain and impulse: to create a place we can call home. Galatea 2.2. He lives in Illinois, USA. As the NASDAQ index spirals upward, street riots break out, a terrorist is arrested, a child Samaritan disappears, a jetliner goes down—and the city begins to emerge in its true colours. Joaquin Buitrago, a photographer in the Richard Price Castañeda Insane Asylum, believes a patient, Nominated by Jonathan Raban was born in England and since Matilda Burgos, is a prostitute he knew years Warsaw Public Library, Poland 1990 has lived in Seattle, USA. He is the author earlier. His obsession leads him to explore the of ten previous books including Foreign Land clinic’s records, and her tragic history. Joaquin After a lucrative television writing career comes and Passage to Juneau. and Matilda begin to tell each other fragmented to an abrupt end, Ray Mitchell returns to the stories about a past they almost shared, and New Jersey city of his birth—to rethink his life a future in which they do not believe. Set in and to spread wealth on the housing project 1920’s Mexico, this novel is at once an overview that reared him. of one of the most turbulent times in Mexican history, a love story, and a meditation on the

website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 21 2005 Nominations ways in which medical and popular language several of Penny’s other souls ask Andy for The Cuban Prospect defined insanity. help, Andy reluctantly agrees, setting in motion Brian Shawver a chain of events that threatens to destroy the Cristina Rivera-Garza is the author of fiction, stability of the house. Now Andy and Penny Nominated by poetry, and essays. No One Will See Me Cry must work together to uncover a terrible secret Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs, USA received the 1997 José Rubén Romero Prize and that Andy has been keeping . . . from himself. No longer a candidate for baseball greatness, the 2000 IMPAC-CONARTE-ITESM Prize. Matt Ruff is the author of two previous novels, Dennis Birch, a minor league scout, accepts the challenge of his organisation to smuggle Fool on the Hill and Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Villa Incognito the hot right-handed pitcher, Ramon Diego Public Works Trilogy. He lives in Seattle, USA. Sagasta, out of Cuba. Sagasta plays for the Tom Robbins Further information is available at Cuban National Team but just might be www.bymattruff.com Nominated by destined for American super-stardom. Birch Regional Library of Karviná Karvina-Mizerov, Czech is hoping that promoting the greatness Republic The Golden Section of another will somehow confer a small, manageable portion of it on himself. It soon Imagine there are American MIAs who chose to Pernille Rygg becomes excruciatingly clear, though, that remain missing after the Vietnam War. Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett Fidel Castro’s Cuba is much further from the Imagine that there is a family in which four Nominated by Florida Keys than the miles marked on a map. generations of strong, alluring women share a Copenhagen Central Library, Denmark mysterious connection to an outlandish figure Brian Shawver grew up in Kansas City and from Japanese folklore. But no matter how Igi Heitmann is being stalked. In the hard you try, you’ll never imagine what you’ll currently lives in Massachusetts, USA where he Oslo suburb where she lives someone is teaches English. This is his first novel. find inside the Villa Incognito: a tilt-a-whirl of spray-painting the walls of the houses : identity, masquerade, and disguise that dares HEITMANN=CHILD KILLER. Who would All He Ever Wanted to pull off “the false moustache of the world” think this? Igi attends the opening of the and reveal the even greater mystery underneath. exhibition of an avant-garde artist whose Anita Shreve use of violent pornography has caused great Tom Robbins, maverick author of eight controversy. A video is playing, showing a Nominated by National Library, Male, Maldives juicy, daring and sagacious novels, is one of young man being strangled as part of a sado- those rare writers who approach rock-star masochistic sex game. status, attracting SRO crowds at his personal It is a fire in a New Hampshire hotel that brings Nicholas Van Tassel and Etna Bliss appearances in Europe and Australia as well as The video is real, the killing played out live to together. For Nicholas, it is also a chance in the United States. He lives primarily in the its unwitting audience, and one of Igi’s clients meeting that lights up a lifelong passion, and Seattle area. is accused of murder. Igi finds herself trapped sets in motion a pursuit of Etna that is to end in a post-modern nightmare as she explores in their marriage. Joseph Knight the world in which art, sex and violence meet. James Robertson But their life is not everything they could have Pernille Rygg was born in 1963. The Golden imagined. Many years later, Nicholas recounts Nominated by Section is her third novel. their courtship and their time together. And as Edinburgh City Libraries & Information Services, Scotland the threads of the story begin to unravel, what Monsieur Ibrahim and is revealed is a patchwork of promises, truths, the Flowers of the Koran Exiled to Jamaica after the Battle of Culloden secrets and lies, and a man, madly in love, for in 1746, Sir John Wedderburn made a fortune, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt whom his wife is all he ever wanted… alongside his three brothers, as a faux surgeon Translated from the French by Marjolijn de Jager Anita Shreve is the author of nine previous and sugar planter. Two decades later, when he Nominated by novels including The Pilot’s Wife, Fortune’s Rocks, returned to Scotland to marry and re-establish Helsinki City Library, Finland the family name, he brought with him Joseph The Last Time They Met and Sea Glass. She lives Knight, a black slave, a token of his years in the Set in the 1960’s in Paris’ Jewish quarter, in Massachusetts, USA. West Indies. At the end of his long life, long Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran after the Edinburgh court case which pitted is about a troubled Jewish boy, Moses, or Not Before Sundown master against slave, property against liberty, Momo, who strikes up an unlikely friendship Johanna Sinisalo Wedderburn tries to track down Joseph Knight, with a solitary Muslim shopkeeper named who has been missing for twenty-four years but Monsieur Ibrahim. Momo’s hilarious yet Translated from the Finnish by Herbert Lomas whom he has never forgotten. heart-wrenching story begins when he loses Nominated by his virginity in a bordello at the age of eleven. Helsinki City Library, Finland James Robertson is the author of the novel Ibrahim offers Momo his ear and advice and Tampere City Library, Finland The Fanatic as well as two collections of short gradually teaches the precocious boy that stories, Close and The Ragged Man’s Complaint, there is more to life than whores and stealing Mikael, a young gay photographer, finds a several collections of poetry, and a book groceries. Eventually, the two decide to make young troll whom he names, Pessi, and takes of Scottish ghost stories. He lives in Fife, a trip across Europe to the birthplace of him home. He researches everything he can Scotland. Monsieur Ibrahim that brings them to the most about trolls but what Mikael does not discover important crossroads of their lives. is that trolls exude pheromones that smell like a Calvin Klein aftershave and that this Set This House in Order Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s bestselling novels has a profound aphrodisiac effect on all those Matt Ruff and plays have been produced in 35 countries. around him. Mikael finds himself fast-tracked into a dangerous liaison with Martes, a sexually Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran has Nominated by ambivalent art director while others become been made into a Sony Pictures Classics film Houston Public Library, USA obsessed with him because he carries the starring Omar Sharif. troll’s scent. The troll, Pessi, is the interpreter Andy Gage was born in 1965 and murdered not of man’s darkest, most forbidden desires. long after. . . It was no ordinary murder. Only his soul actually died, and it broke into pieces Johanna Sinisalo was born in Finnish Lapland and the pieces became souls in their own right. Penny Driver is also a multiple personality, a in 1958. Not Before Sundown, her first novel, has fact that Penny is only partially aware of. When been translated into eight languages. website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 2005 Nominations 22

Good Faith Grass Roof, Tin Roof is a work of powerful Forever in Paradise emotion and empathy, investigating the myth Jane Smiley Apelu Tielu of westward progress and the consequences of Nominated by cultural displacement. Nominated by Cleveland Public Library, USA Nelson Memorial Public Library, Apia, Samoa Dao Strom was born in 1973 in Saigon. Her Joe Stratford makes an honest living helping mother fled the country with her when she was Born into a life of affluence and privilege, nice people buy and sell nice houses. It’s 1982 a baby. Strom grew up in Northern California Solomona Tuisamoa is sent to study in New and he is reasonably content. But Joe’s new and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Zealand. He rises to prominence in both the friend, Marcus Burns from New York, tells him Workshop. She lives in Texas, USA. Samoan and university communities, where that now is the time to get rich quick. Is Joe he becomes a natural leader. On the death ready for this kind of success? of his father, Solomona selflessly abandons The Light of Day a promising career to assume the role of And then there’s Felicity, the lovely, feisty, (and Graham Swift Paramount Chief, accepting responsibilities for married) daughter of Marcus. The question Joe his family, village and country. asks himself is does he have what it takes to Nominated by keep Marcus and Felicity sweet —and reap the Universitäts-und Landesbibliothek Bonn, Germany The Free State Provincial Library Service, Forever in Paradise introduces the reader to the rewards? Bloemfontein, South Africa fascinating culture of Samoa, its beautiful landscape and its intriguing myths and Good Faith captures the seductions and illusions Sarah is in prison. Every fortnight she is visited legends. In essence a love story, this engaging of this new era of “anything goes” in a roller- by George, the private eye she employed to novel deals with cultural tensions and the coaster ride through the fun park of the 1980s. observe the final stage of her husband’s affair. challenges faced by a traditional community The visits - and the days between - lead George grappling with the economic imperatives of Jane Smiley is the author of many novels, back into Sarah’s past, into events he can modern living. including A Thousand Acres, which won the picture only too well, while bringing him ever Pulitzer Prize and Horse Heaven. She was closer to a time he can’t quite imagine - when Apelu Tielu was born in the village of Sa’aga- inducted into the American Academy of Arts she will once again step out into the clear light Si’umu in Western Samoa. He studied at North and Letters in 2001. She lives in Northern of day... Shore Teachers’ College in New Zealand, Xavier California. University in the Philippines, and the University Tender and humorous in its depiction of of Guelph in Canada. He now lives in Canberra Grass Roof, Tin Roof life’s surface The Light of Day still achieves where he works as a research economist. an extraordinary intensity and unbearable Dao Strom suspense. The Builder Nominated by San José Public Library, USA Graham Swift was born in London in 1949. Edith L. Tiempo He is the author of six other novels: The Sweet Nominated by Shop Owner; Shuttlecock; Waterland, which was The National Library of the Philippines, Manila, shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Out of this Philippines World; Ever After, and Last Orders, which won Felix Acuna is a busy man. Professor of Physics the 1996 Booker Prize. He has also published a at the university town of Dumaguete, when he collection of short stories, Learning to Swim. is not urging his students to speed up their work, or supervising the academic progress Politics of the school administrator’s middling son, he is busy building a house as he awaits the Adam Thirlwell birth of his firstborn. Then one morning as Nominated by he ends class, he is taken aback by a violent Leipzip Stadbibliothek, Germany incident across the street. Now he must pursue an enigmatic outlaw as he attempts to solve an Politics explores crucial domestic problems unsettling domestic crime. of sexual etiquette. What should the sleeping arrangements be in a ménage à trois? Is it The Builder is a story full of ironies and polite to read while two people have sex beside moral ambiguity, where the author above you? Is it permissible to be jealous? all meditates on the human yearning for rootedness. Politics is a comedy about kindness. And at the same time, it is also about Milan Kundera, Edith L. Tiempo, Philippine National Artist Václav Havel, half-Jewishness, Bollywood, for Literature, directs the National Writers Hitler’s sexual fetish, selfishness, Osip Workshop established by her and her husband Mandelstam, premature ejaculation, the late in 1962. She is also the first Elisabeth Luce Queen Mother, thrush, politeness, and pink Moore distinguished Asian Professor. She fluffy handcuffs. is based in Dumaguete City and Montemar, Sibulan on Negros Island. Told from multiple perspectives, Grass Roof, Politics is not about politics. Tin Roof begins with the story of Tran, Frankie & Stankie a Vietnamese writer facing government Adam Thirlwell was born in 1978 and grew persecution, who flees to the West in 1975 with up in North London. In January 2003 he was Barbara Trapido her two children. Here she marries a Danish chosen by Granta as one of the Best of Young American man who has survived a different Nominated by British Novelists. Politics, his first novel, won war. He promises understanding and guidance, Cape Town Central Library, South Africa a 2003 Betty Trask Award. He lives in Oxford, but the psychic consequences of his past soon England. hinder his relationships with the family. The Dinah and her sister Lisa are growing up in children, for whom the war is now a distant 1950s South Africa, where racial laws are shadow, struggle to understand the world tightening. They are two little girls from a around them on their own terms. dissenting liberal family. Big sister Lisa is strong and sensible, while Dinah is weedy and arty pampered by her anxious German mother. website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 23 2005 Nominations

At school, the sadistic Mrs Vaughan-Jones is Adriana Trigiani grew up in Big Stone Gap, The In-Between World of Vikram Lall providing instruction in mental arithmetic and Virginia, and now lives with her husband and M.G. Vassanji racial prejudice. As the apparatus of repression daughter in New York City. In addition to being rolls on, Dinah escapes into rewarding the author of Big Stone Gap, Big Cherry Holler Nominated by friendships with brilliant, wild-girl Maud and Milk Glass Moon she is an award-winning Ottawa Public Library, Canada Toronto Public Library, Canada and trim, clued-up Jenny. Then there’s the playwright, television writer, and documentary minefield of boys and university. filmmaker.

Dinah’s journey through childhood and The Book of Salt adolescence draws us into one of the darker passages of twentieth-century history. Monique Truong Nominated by Barbara Trapido was born in South Africa Biblioteca Municipal Central de Lisboa, Lisbon, and is the author of five novels, Brother of Portugal the More Famous Jack, winner of a Whitbread Chicago Public Library, USA special prize for fiction, Noah’s Ark, Temples of Hamilton-Wenham Public Library, Hamilton, USA Delight, Juggling and The Travelling Hornplayer, shortlisted for the 1998 Whitbread Novel In Paris, 1934, Bính has accompanied his Award. She lives in Oxford, England. employers, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, to the train station for their departure to The Colour America. For five years, he has been their live- in cook but now his destination is unclear. Rose Tremain His narrative takes us back to his youth in Nominated by French-colonized Vietnam before he was Regional Library of Karviná, Karvina-Mizerov, Czech Republic forced to leave in disgrace, and then his days cooking for the doyennes of the Lost Newlyweds Joseph and Harriet Blackstone Generation. With wry insight, he views Stein arrive in New Zealand full of hope but the and Toklas ensconced in rueful domesticity. harsh land they settle threatens to destroy them almost before they begin. Bính is a lost soul, a man of musings, memories, and, possibly, lies. Love is the prize Then Joseph sets off for the new goldfields that has always eluded him, from his family joining the hundreds of others who are under to the men he has sought out in his far-flung journeys. It is 1953 in colonial Kenya and as the Mau the seductive spell of “the colour”. Mau guerrilla war rages eight-year-old Indian Harriet struggles to manage the farm alone, Vikram Lall witnesses the celebration of Queen but eventually follows her husband. On her Monique Truong was born in Saigon in 1968 and moved to the United States at age six. She Elizabeth’s coronation. Neither colonist own journey, she discovers the possibility of a nor African, Vic finds himself somewhere in co-edited the anthology Watermark: Vietnamese future she could never have imagined. between in this changing world. American Poetry and Prose. The Book of Salt is her award-winning first novel. She now lives in The Colour is the story of a quest for We follow Vikram through the changes in East Brooklyn, New York. the impossible, an attempt to mine the African society, but when hope is betrayed by complexities of love and what it is that makes the corruption and violence of the following men and women happy. Easter Island decades, he is drawn inevitably into power- broking. Njoroge, his childhood friend, cannot Jennifer Vanderbes Rose Tremain is the author of nine novels, abandon the idealism of his youth. including The Way I Found Her and Music & Nominated by Silence. Her work has been translated into New Hampshire State Library, Concord, USA The In-Between World of Vikram Lall is a fourteen languages. She lives in Norfolk, haunting novel of corruption and regret that England, with the biographer Richard Holmes. Easter Island, 1913. Englishwoman Elsa Beazley exemplifies the complexity and turbulence of arrives on the remote South Pacific isle with Kenyan society in the last five decades. Lucia, Lucia her new husband Edward. For Edward, an anthropologist, the trip is a rare opportunity M.G. Vassanji was born in Kenya, and raised Adriana Trigiani to study the colossal moai statues. But Elsa in Tanzania. He is the author of four previous embarks on her own journey of discovery, Nominated by novels, The Gunny Sack, No New Land, The Book investigating the island’s elusive history. Belfast Education and Library Board, Northern of Secrets, which won the 1994 inaugural Giller Ireland Unearthing a series of ancient tablets, a breathtaking mystery unwinds around her. Prize and Amriika. He is also the author of a collection of short stories, Uhuru Street. The Lucia Sartori, the most beautiful girl in In-Between World of Vikram Lall won the 2003 Greenwich Village, is highly sought after as Sixty years later, another woman arrives on Easter Island. An American botanist, Greer Giller Prize. He lives in Toronto with his wife a potential wife by the best Italian families and two sons. in New York. But it is 1950 and Lucia, with Farraday, has come to escape a painful past. a glamorous job in a chic Fifth Avenue A series of brilliant revelations brings to life department store, is not yet ready to give it all the parallel quests of these two intrepid young up. women as they are forced to confront turbulent discoveries about themselves and the people Until a handsome stranger comes into her life they love. and she falls passionately in love at first sight. But first they must win over her traditional Jennifer Vanderbes is a graduate of Yale family. Their love affair takes an unexpected University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. turn as secrets are revealed, Lucia’s family Her non-fiction has appeared in The New York honour is tested, and her own reputation Times and The Washington Post. Easter Island is becomes the centre of a sizzling scandal. her first novel.

website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 2005 Nominations 24 Tonguecat The Blind Man of Seville

Peter Verhelst Robert Wilson Translated from the Dutch by Sherry Marx Nominated by Nominated by Reykjavik City Library, Iceland Hoofdstedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek, Brussels, Belgium It’s Easter in Seville, a week of passion and The Association of Public Libraries, The Hague, The processions. A leading restaurateur is found Netherlands murdered in front of his TV. At this horrific scene the normally dispassionate homicide Tonguecat tells the story of a city’s decline detective Javier Falcón is inexplicably afraid. into chaos and violence upon the arrival What could be so terrible? of Prometheus, the Titan. Prometheus has abandoned a violent primeval world for a cold, The investigation into the victim’s turbulent earthly city that is perpetually in renewal—in life sends Falcón trawling through his own ways, an emblem of contemporary urban life. past and the journals of his late father. Painful Ulrike, an orphaned girl, guides Prometheus revelations and more killings push him to the through the slums of the city. Prometheus edge of terrifying truth. And Falcón realizes finds himself in a counterculture of squatters, that this is not just a hunt for the all-seeing junkies, and storytelling whores—called killer who knows his victims’ secret lives but tonguecats. The fire of resistance is also the search for his own missing heart. smouldering all through the city; although the court continues to function, opposition to Robert Wilson was born in 1957. He is married the monarchy mounts, and the king leaves his and divides his time between England, Spain palace in search of human warmth. and Portugal. He is the author of five previous novels, including The Company of Strangers and Peter Verhelst, born in 1962, lives in Belgium, A Small Death in Lisbon, which won the Gold where he is the editor of the literary magazine Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of 1999. Dietse Warande & Belfort. Tonguecat won three of Peter Wells, born in Auckland in 1950, is a the top Flemish literary prizes. prize-winning author and filmmaker. His memoir, Long Loop Home, won the 2002 Old School Bump Montana New Zealand Book Award for Biography. He conceived and set about writing Tobias Wolff Diana Wagman Iridescence as the Inaugural Randell Cottage Nominated by Writer in Residence in Wellington. Miami-Dade Public Library System, Miami, USA Nominated by Houston Public Library, USA San José Public Library, USA The Mango’s Kiss Determined to fit in at his New England prep Bump is the story of three motorists and one Albert Wendt school, the narrator has learned to mimic the policeman linked together by a tangled web of bearing and manners of his adoptive tribe while coincidence in the immediate aftermath of a Nominated by concealing as much as possible about himself. three-car pile-up in Los Angeles. Dorothy is to Christchurch City Libraries, New Zealand Wellington City Libraries, New Zealand His final year, however, unravels everything be married in less than twenty-four hours but he’s achieved. can’t shake the memory of her ex-boyfriend. Madelyn is a married mother of two who falls Pele’s first moment of remembered consciousness is the morning kiss of the The school’s mystique is rooted in Literature, in love with a man she met through a suicide and for many boys this becomes an obsession, hotline. Leo is a golden-eyed Latino who mango fruit on her cheek. That kiss brings with it the awareness of mortality, pleasure and editing the review and competing for the speaks no Spanish. Ray is a Beverly Hills cop attention of visiting writers. But the final guest whose wife has just left him. Fast-paced and pain. It is a gift from her father, the man she adores. This is the story of the struggles and is one whose blessing a young writer would do vividly cinematic, Bump presents an engrossing passions of Pele and her family as they adapt almost anything to gain… tableau of synchronicity steered by obsession to the growing world beyond the village life in and alienation. Samoa. Yet Pele’s vision must also encompass Old School examines the process by which the family’s links to the ancient gods of pre- character is formed, and illuminates the Diana Wagman is a novelist and a screenwriter missionary times and all the history of the tribe irresistible power, even the violence, of the self- who lives in Los Angeles. Her first novel, Skin since then. creative urge. Deep, was published in 1996, and her first produced screenplay, Delivering Milo, was The Mango’s Kiss is a riveting story of love and Tobias Wolff lives in Northern California and released in 2000. lies, revenge and redemption. teaches at Stanford University. He has received the Rea Award for excellence in the short story, Iridescence Albert Wendt was born in Samoa. He first The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the PEN/ came to New Zealand in 1952, where he went Faulkner Award. He is the author of This Boy’s Peter Wells to high school, teachers’ training college and Life, a memoir and the novella, The Barracks Nominated by university. Later he was Professor of Pacific Thief. Auckland City Libraries, New Zealand Literature at the University of the South Pacific. At present he is Professor of English at the The Alphabet of Light and Dark Samuel Barton is a remittance man, exiled to University of Auckland. the dusty town of Napier in New Zealand in Danielle Wood 1871 to live on a small but regular sum having Nominated by left behind a secret scandal. But he carries with State Library of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia him something he hopes will buy his freedom. A tiny coin found inside a Cloudy Bay oyster, Scandal and secrets are at the heart of a postcard of a white-haired child leaning Iridescence, a novel that spans two decades of against a beached dinghy and a coconut peeled the Victorian age from the sexual shenanigans and carved. These trinkets, found in a sea of the theatre world in a brilliantly amoral chest, and the fragmented memories of her London to a small colonial town. It shows what grandfather’s tall tales are all Essie Lewis has happens when life on the stage is taken into the left of her family history. streets. The world of make-believe explodes. website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 25 2005 Nominations

After her grandfather’s death, Essie returns to Eagles and Angels The Book Bruny Island, Tasmania and to the lighthouse Julie Zeh Zoran Živkovic where her great-great-grandfather kept watch for nearly 40 years. But the island is also home Translated from the German by Christine Slenczka Translated from the Serbian by to Pete Shelverton and as Essie writes, she Nominated by Aleksandar B. Nedeljkovic finds that Pete is a part of the history she can Universitäts-und Landesbibliothek Bonn, Germany Nominated by never escape. Municipal Public Library ‘Mulutin Bojic’, Belgrade, Max is a successful lawyer with an international Serbia & Montenegro Danielle Wood was born in Hobart in 1972. She law firm in Vienna. But when Jessie – his has worked as a journalist with newspapers in former school friend and daughter of a drug The Book is not quite a novel, although almost Hobart and Perth and as a producer with ABC dealer – re-enters his life, his love and concern half of it takes the form of a narrative, neither is it an essay, although quite a lot of what is Radio in Perth and Broome. The Alphabet of for her distraught state takes over. Jessie’s suicide sends Max into a drug-induced said in it adopts that style. It is actually closest Light and Dark is her first novel. oblivion…and so Eagles and Angels begins. Part to that rare type or “para-genre” of satirical love story, part crime thriller, the complex plot prose embodied in the exemplary In Praise of The Liberated Bride unfolds with a wickedly ingenious structure, Folly by the famous humanist from Rotterdam. Instead of the “Folly,” of human manias and A.B. Yehoshua full of bizarre twists and turns: reading it is deeply satisfying, like solving a sophisticated absurdities, here, in a similar kind of double- Translated from the Hebrew by Hillel Halkin riddle. talk, the books themselves “speak,” those Nominated by monuments to our intelligence, ambitions and Hamilton-Wenham Public Library, Hamilton, USA Juli Zeh was born in 1974 in Bonn. She studied self-importance, and they primarily “speak” European and International Law in Leipzig and by making an analogy between man’s fate and has studied and worked at the UN in New York, that of books—to man’s detriment, of course. Krakow and Zagreb. She lives in Leipzig. Her website can be found at www.juli-zeh.de. Zoran Živkovic was born in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, in 1948.' He is the author of the Hunting Midnight following works of fiction: The Fourth Circle, Time Gifts, The Writer, The Book, Impossible Richard Zimler Encounters, Seven Touches of Music, The Library, Nominated by Steps through the Mist, and Candid Camera. He Biblioteca Municipal Central de Lisboa, Lisbon, lives in Belgrade. Portugal

For Jews, life in early nineteenth century Portugal is perilous. For John Zarco Stewart, the unwitting inheritor of this secret faith, this is especially true. A season of loss and bitter discovery brings his innocence to an abrupt end. It is only the ministrations of a magical stranger, Midnight, an African healer, that restore his safety. He will become John’s greatest friend and determine the course of his destiny.

When Napoleon’s armies invade Portugal, violence again intrudes on John’s fragile peace. But secrets are revealed and he discovers the act of unspeakable betrayal that destroyed his family - and his faith. And so his shattering quest begins as he travels to America in search Yochanan Rivlin, a professor of Near Eastern of hope. Studies at Haifa University, is equally determined to understand the causes of the Richard Zimler was born in Manhasset, New Algerian civil war of the 1990s and the mystery of his son’s divorce. His is a double search York. He is the author of The Last Kabbalist for truth, each involving a different bride of Lisbon, The Angelic Darkness, and Unholy – Samahar, his own research assistant, an Ghosts. He currently resides in Portugal. More ambitious Arab newlywed from a village in the information is available on his website at Galilee, and Galya, who deserted his son in www.zimler.com. Jerusalem with no explanation. ' In this comedy of manners, at once deeply serious and highly entertaining, Yehoshua brilliantly portrays characters from disparate sectors of Israeli life, united above all by a very human desire for, and fear of, the truth in politics and life.

Born in Jerusalem, A. B. Yehoshua is one of Israel’s pre-eminent writers. He is the author of numerous novels, including Mr. Mani, Open Heart, and A Journey to the End of the Millennium. He lives in Haifa, Israel.

website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 2005 Nominations 26 Participating Libraries 185 l i b r a r i e s representing 129 c i t i e s i n 51 c o u n t r i e s .

Australia Denmark Hungary Adelaide, State Library of South Australia Aarhus, Århus Kommunes Biblioteker Kecskemet, Bács-Kiskun County Brisbane, State Library of Queensland Copenhagen, Copenhagen Central Library Government Katona Jozsef County Library Canberra, National Library of Australia Frederiksberg, Frederiksberg Kommunes Iceland Hobart, State Library of Tasmania Biblioteker Reykjavik, Reykjavik City Library Melbourne, State Library of Victoria England Vestmannaeyjar, Public Library of Westman Islands Perth, State Library of Western Australia Birmingham, Birmingham Libraries India Sydney, State Library of New South Wales Gateshead, Gateshead Libraries & Arts New Delhi, India International Centre Austria Liverpool, Liverpool Libraries & Information Services Library Vienna, Büchereien Wein London, London's Public Libraries Ireland Barbados Manchester, Time to Read - NW Libraries' Cork, Cork City Library Bridgetown, National Library Service of Partnership Dublin, Dublin City Public Libraries Barbados Newcastle, Newcastle Libraries & Limerick, Limerick City Library Belgium Information Service Waterford, Waterford County Library Brussels, Hoofdstedelijke Openbare Sheffield, Sheffield Libraries, Archives Italy Bibliotheek and Information Services Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Ghent, Stedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek Finland Gent Firenze Helsinki, Helsinki City Library Leuven, Tweebronnen Openbare Jamaica Tampere, Tampere City Library Bibliotheek Kingston, Jamaica Library Service France Brazil Kenya Lille, Bibliothèque Municipale de Lille Brasilia, Biblioteca Demonstrativa de Nairobi, Kenya National Library Service Brasília BDB Nice, Bibliothèque Municipale de Nice Lebanon Canada Paris, Bibliothèques Municipales de Paris Beirut, Jafet Library- American University Edmonton, Edmonton Public Library Poitiers, Médiathèque François- of Beirut Mitterrand de Poitiers Halifax, Halifax Regional Library Malaysia Strasbourg, Bibliothèque Municipale de Montreal, Bibliothèque de Montréal Strasbourg Kuala Lumpur, National Library of Ottawa, Ottawa Public Library Malaysia Gabon Sydney, Cape Breton Regional Library Maldives Libreville, Bibliothèque Nationale Toronto, Toronto Public Library Male, National Library Germany Vancouver, Vancouver Public Library Mexico Berlin, Zentral-und Landesbibliothek Chile Berlin Mexico City, Biblioteca Daniel Cosio Villegas of El Colegio de Mexico Valparaiso, Biblioteca Publica No. 1 Bonn, Universitäts-und Landesbibliothek Santiago Severin de Valparaiso Bonn Monaco Colombia Bremen, Stadtbibliothek Bremen Monaco-Ville, Princess Grace Irish Library Bogota, Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango Dusseldorf, Stadtbüchereien Dusseldorf New Zealand Croatia Frankfurt, Stadtbücherei Frankfurt-am- Auckland, Auckland City Libraries Rijeka, Gradska Knjižnica Rijeka Main Christchurch, Christchurch City Libraries Czech Republic Leipzig, Stadtbibliothek Leipzig Dunedin, Dunedin Public Libraries Karvina-Mizerov, Regional Library of Munich, Münchner Stadtbibliothek Wellington, Wellington City Libraries Karviná Ghana Nigeria Prague, Municipal Library of Prague Accra, Ghana Library Board Makurdi, Benue State Library Board Greece Veria, Veria Central Public Library

website: www.impacdublinaward.ie 27 2005 Nominations Participating Libraries 185 l i b r a r i e s representing 129 c i t i e s i n 51 c o u n t r i e s .

Northern Ireland Spain USA Belfast, Belfast Education and Library Barcelona, Consorci de Biblioteques de Chicago, Chicago Public Library Board Barcelona Cincinnati, Public Library of Cincinnati & Norway Sri Lanka Hamilton County Bergen, Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek Colombo, Colombo Public Library Cleveland, Cleveland Public Library Oslo, Deichmanske Bibliotek Sweden Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak Library District Stavanger, Solvberget KF - Stavanger Stockholm, Stockholm Public Library Bibliotek og Kulturhus Columbia, Richland County Public Library Switzerland Philippines Concord, New Hampshire State Library Bern, Stadt-und Universitätsbibliothek Manila, The National Library of the Bern Denver, Denver Public Library Philippines Geneva, Bibliothèques Municipales Hamilton, Hamilton-Wenham Public Poland Geneva Library Lodz, Wojewódzka i Miejska Biblioteca The Gambia Hartford, Hartford Public Library Publiczna Banjul, The Gambia National Library Houston, Houston Public Library Warsaw, Warsaw Public Library The Netherlands Kansas City, Kansas City Public Library Portugal Amsterdam, Openbare Bibliotheek Lincoln, Lincoln City Libraries Lisbon, Biblioteca Municipal Central de Amsterdam Miami, Miami-Dade Public Library System Lisboa Eindhoven, Openbare Bibliotheek Milwaukee, Milwaukee Public Library Porto, Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Eindhoven Minneapolis, Minneapolis Public Library Porto Rotterdam, Gemeentebibliotheek New York, New York Public Library Russia Rotterdam Philadelphia, Free Library of Philadelphia Moscow, M.I. Rudomino State Library for The Hague, The Association of Public Foreign Literature Libraries Portland, Multnomah County Library Samoa Utrecht, Gemeentebibliotheek Utrecht Richmond, Richmond Public Library Apia, Nelson Memorial Public Library Trinidad & Tobago San Diego, San Diego Public Library Scotland Port-of-Spain, National Library and San José, San José Public Library Information System Authority (NALIS) Aberdeen, Aberdeen Library & Springfield, Lincoln Library Information Services Tallahassee, LeRoy Collins Leon County Edinburgh, Edinburgh City Libraries & Public Library Information Services Tucson, Tucson-Pima Public Library Glasgow, Glasgow Libraries Information & Learning Serbia & Montenegro Belgrade, Municipal Public Library ‘Milutin Bojic’ Slovenia Ljubljana, Knjižnica Otona Župancica South Africa Bloemfontein, The Free State Provincial Library Service Cape Town, Cape Town Central Library Johannesburg, City of Johannesburg Library & Information Services Pretoria, Tshwane Library and Information Service

website: www.impacdublinaward.ie ISSN 1393-8908 Participating Libraries 185 l i b r a r i e s representing 129 c i t i e s i n 51 c o u n t r i e s .

The tenth year of the award has seen a sizeable increase in the number of libraries participating and we are delighted to welcome on board newcomers:

n Bibliothèque de Montréal, Canada

n Århus Kommunes Biblioteker, Denmark

n Time to Read - NW Libraries’ Partnership, England — a partnership of 22 library authorities

n Bibliothèques Municipales de Paris, France

n Bibliothèque Nationale, Libreville, Gabon Patrik Schylström representing Stockholm State Library of South Australia, Adelaide City Library attended the Presentation nominated Family Matters by Rohinton n Princess Grace Irish Library, Monaco- Dinner in June 2004 in Dublin, courtesy of Mistry, shortlisted for the 2004 award. Staff ville, Monaco IMPAC. He is seen here receiving a citation involved in the nomination process are from Deirdre Ellis-King, Dublin City pictured here against the backdrop of the n The National Library, Manila, Phillipines Librarian. newly redeveloped State Library.

n Nelson Memorial Public Library, Apia, Left to right, Alan Smith (Director), Mark Samoa Gilbert, Sue Lewis and Anna Angelakis.

n The Free State Provincial Library Service, Bloemfontein, South Africa

n The Gambia National Library, Banjul, The Gambia

n San Diego Public Library, USA

Wojewodzka i Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna w Congratulations to Deichmanske Bibliotek Lodzi, Poland nominated House of Day, House Oslo who nominated the 2004 winning of Night by Olga Tokarczuk, shortlisted for novel, The Blinding Absence of Light. Pictured the 2004 award. here are the selection team Knut Oterholm, Astrid Werner, Liv Olsen and Hilde Matre Left to right: Piotr Boczkowski - Head of the Larsen. Acquisition and Cataloging Division, Jolanta Szymanska - Head of the Circulation and Storing Division, Andrzej Gawronski - Head of the Reference Services Division.

The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, an initiative of Dublin Contact Us City Council, is a partnership between Dublin City Council, the municipal government authority of Ireland’s capital city and IMPAC, a company International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, committed to productivity improvement, operating in over 50 countries Dublin City Library & Archive, world-wide. 138-144 Pearse Street, Patron of the Award: The Lord Mayor of Dublin Dublin 2, Ireland. Telephone: + 353 1 674 4802 / 1 Fiction Matters, the newsletter of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, is an occasional publication issued at least once a year. Facsimile: + 353 1 674 4879 e-mail: [email protected] © Dublin City Public Libraries 2005 www.impacdublinaward.ie