THE NEWSLETTER OF THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD FICTION MATTERS No.22 – February 2016 THE COMPLETE LIST OF ELIGIBLE TITLES 2016 SHORTLIST ANNOUNCEMent 12 April WINNER ANNOUNCEMent 9 June www.dublinliteraryaward.ie Harvest by Jim Crace is the winner of the 20th Award! The 2015 Winner Announcement took place in the Round Room of the Mansion House, Dublin on 17th June 2015 Left to Right; Margaret Hayes, Dublin City Librarian; Jim Crace, winner of the 2015 award; Lord Mayor of Dublin and Patron of the Award, Christy Burke; Owen Keegan, Chief Executive, Dublin City Council. The International DUBLIN Literary Award (formerly IMPAC Dublin) is presented annually for a novel written in English or translated into English. The award aims to promote excellence in world literature and is sponsored by Dublin City Council, the municipal government of Dublin. The award is now in its 21st year. Nominations are submitted by library systems in major cities throughout the world. 2 www.dublinliteraryaward.ie Kate Harvey from Picador – publishers of Harvest – is presented with a Jane Alger, Director, Dublin UNESCO City Dublin Crystal Bowl by Owen Keegan, Chief Executive, Dublin City Council, with of Literature, Master of Ceremonies. Jim Crace, right. Jim Crace, pictured with Alessandra Mariani, Biblioteca Margaret Hayes, Dublin City Librarian, pictured here with Nazionale di Roma, Italy, as she is presented with a scroll by the Kantawan Magkunthod, winner of the Thai Young Writers Lord Mayor, Christy Burke, in recognition of library participation competition, organised by the Irish Embassy in Malaysia. worldwide. Congratulations to the nominators of Harvest, Universitätsbibliothek Bern, Switzerland and LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library System, Tallahassee, USA. Left to Right: Gabriela Scherrer Bern, Nick Landolt Bern, Donna Cirenza Tallahassee. “We were delighted that Harvest was the “This was so much fun for me and I am “Harvest details the unravelling of life as winner of the 2015 award. The novel struck over the moon that our nomination won. changes creep or rush upon us. This book us as very imaginative, roaming widely To hear the author thank the library in led me to read Jim Crace’s previous novels. across epochs and cultures. We have been his speech was exciting.” I think his keen, observant eye gives nominating novels for more than 10 years readers wonderful books.” and are looking forward to participating in the process again.” www.dublinliteraryaward.ie 3 The launch of the 2016 International DUBLIN Literary Award, Dublin City Library and Archive, 9th November 2015 Margaret Hayes, left, Dublin City Librarian and Ardmhéara, Críona Ní Dhalaigh, Patron, celebrate Dublin City Council’s sole sponsorship of the award and change of name to The International DUBLIN Literary Award Irish authors nominated for the 2016 award attend the launch. Left to Right Liz Nugent, Mary Costello, Sebastian Barry, Joseph O’Connor, Audrey Magee and Eibhear Walshe. The longlist also includes Colm Tóibín. Members of the 2016 Judging Panel Left to Right Juan Pablo Villalobos, Carlo Gébler, Ian Sansom, Meaghan Delahunt, Judge Eugene Sullivan, non-voting chair and Margaret Hayes, Dublin City Librarian. The 2016 judging panel also includes Iglika Vassileva. 4 www.dublinliteraryaward.ie The King journalist, Jessica Keith, is assigned to Song of the Shank 2016 by Kader Abdolah cover the mysterious murder. Something by Jeffery Renard Allen ELIGIBLE TITLES ELIGIBLE Translated from the Dutch by unexpected happens when she meets a NOMINATED BY: Nancy Forest-Flier British numerologist, Professor Aaron Barone at a seminar in the University of Pikes Peak Library District, NOMINATED BY: London. They suddenly become fugitives Colorado Springs, USA De Bibliotheek Eindhoven, when another murder takes place at his At the heart of The Netherlands home in Hampstead. The church is trying to this remarkable cover up the murder to keep their interests novel is Thomas It is the nineteenth guarded. But the utmost of all secrets Greene Wiggins, century and the cannot be kept forever. a nineteenth- kingdom of Persia century slave is at a turning Nazehran Jose Ahmad is a Malaysian and improbable point. When a author born in Kelantan in 1980. He has musical genius young King, Shah published nine books, which include three who performed Naser, takes to novels in Malay and one novel translated under the name the throne he to English. His five children’s books have Blind Tom. inherits a medieval, been reprinted several times and received Song of the Shank enchanted world. good reviews from Malaysian readers. opens in 1866 as Tom and his guardian But beyond the The Michelangelo Code is his first English- struggle to adjust to their fashionable court, the greater translation novel with AuthorHouse UK. apartment in the city in the aftermath forces of colonisation and industrialisation He now lives in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. of riots that had driven them away a few close in. The Shah’s grand vizier sees only years before. But soon a stranger arrives one solution – to open up to the outside An Unnecessary Woman who intends to reunite Tom with his now- world, and to bring Persia into modernity. by Rabih Alameddine liberated mother. But the Shah’s mother fiercely opposes the As the novel ranges from Tom’s vizier’s reforms and sets about poisoning NOMINATED BY: boyhood to the heights of his performing her son’s mind against his advisor. The Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton career, the inscrutable savant is buffeted With bloody battles, intrigue and County, USA by opportunistic teachers and crooked extraordinary characters, The King brings Cleveland Public Library, USA managers, crackpot healers and militant a historical moment brilliantly to life. Los Angeles Public Library, USA prophets. Jeffery Renard Allen blends Reading as fairy tale and shedding light on Aaliya Sohbi history and fantastical invention to bring to a pivotal period in history. lives alone in her life a radical cipher, a man who profoundly Kader Abdolah was born in Iran in 1954. Beirut apartment, changes all who encounter him. In1988, at the invitation of the United surrounded by Jeffery Renard Allen is the author of Nations, he arrived in the Netherlands as stockpiles of books. the novel Rails Under My Back, the story a political refugee. Kader Abdolah now Godless, fatherless, collection Holding Pattern, and two writes in Dutch and is the author of several childless, and collections of poetry. Raised in Chicago novels, including My Father’s Notebook and divorced, Aaliya and now living in New York, he teaches at two collections of short stories, as well as is her family’s Queens College and in the writing program works of non-fiction. “unnecessary at the New School. appendage.” Every The Michelangelo Code year, she translates The Zone of Interest by Nazehran Jose Ahmad a new favourite book into Arabic, then stows it away. The thirty-seven books that by Martin Amis Translated from the Malay by Anis Mansor Aaliya has translated over her lifetime have NOMINATED BY: NOMINATED BY: never been read – by anyone. The State Library of South The National Library of Malaysia, In this breathtaking portrait of Australia, Adelaide Kuala Lumpur a reclusive woman’s late-life crisis, Winnipeg Public Library, Canada readers follow Aaliya’s digressive mind When the as it ricochets across visions of past There was an old chief prefect of and present Beirut. Colorful musings on story about a king archives is found literature, philosophy, and art are invaded who asked his mysteriously by memories of the Lebanese Civil War and favourite wizard murdered in the Aaliya’s own volatile past. As she tries to to create a magic Vatican Secret overcome her aging body and spontaneous mirror. This mirror Archives, it emotional upwellings, Aaliya is faced with didn’t show you unleashes a secret an unthinkable disaster that threatens to your reflection. that has been safely shatter the little life she has left. Instead, it showed buried for two you your soul – it thousand years. But Rabih Alameddine is the acclaimed author showed you who a question arises of the novels An Unnecessary Woman, The you really were. from the dead: the victim was a follower of Hakawati; I, The Divine; Koolaids; and the But the king couldn’t look into the mirror the long-lost religious group, the Cathars, short story collection, The Perv. He divides without turning away, and nor could his a group of Medieval Christians who believe his time between Beirut and San Francisco courtiers. No one could. they were the heirs of the original teaching and was a 2002 Guggenheim Fellow. What happens when we discover who of Jesus. A renowned Daily Telegraph we really are? And how do we come to www.dublinliteraryaward.ie 5 terms with it? Fearless and original, And with each letter, Wang feels the In a Europe without The Zone of Interest is a violently dark watcher in the shadows growing closer borders, where love story set against a backdrop of social norms unadulterated evil, and a vivid journey Susan Barker grew up in east London. have become into the depths and contradictions of the While writing The Incarnations she spent fragile, a son human soul. several years living in Beijing, researching must confront the ELIGIBLE TITLES ELIGIBLE imperial and modern China. She lives sins of his father Martin Amis is the author of twelve ELIGIBLE TITLES ELIGIBLE in London. and grandfather, 2016 previous novels, the memoir Experience, and invent new two collections of stories and six 2016 strategies for collections of non-fiction, most recently The Temporary Gentleman survival. The Second Plane. He lives in New York. by Sebastian Barry A young boy NOMINATED BY: grows up with a loving father who has little Cairo Redbridge Libraries London, UK respect for the law.