THE NEWSLETTER OF THE INTERNATIONAL IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD FICTION MATTERS

No.18 February 2012

Complete List of Eligible Titles

12TH APRIL 13TH JUNE

www.impacdublinaward.ie

Perpetual Trophy sponsored by Waterford Crystal Let Th e Great World Spin by Colum McCann, Winner of the 2011 award Jason Clarke Photography Th e 2011 winner is presented with the trophy (L-R) John Tierney, Dublin City Manager, Colum McCann and Th e Lord Mayor of Dublin and Patron of the Award, Gerry Breen. Jason Clarke Photography Jason Clarke Photography (L-R) Dominique Monnot, representing Bibliothèques Municipales Genève, Alexandra Pringle, Bloomsbury Publishing, publishers of Let the Great Switzerland is presented with a scroll by Margaret Hayes, Dublin City Word Spin (also published by Random House Inc.) is presented with a Librarian and Chair of the Award Committee, in recognition of library Dublin Crystal Bowl by John Tierney, Dublin City Manager. participation worldwide.

Perpetual Trophy sponsored by Waterford Crystal Congratulations to the 14 libraries in Canada, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Switzerland and the USA, who nominated Let the Great World Spin

Th is is not just a book about New York City or 9/11, but about fi nding grace, Cork City (Ireland) Librarian, Liam Ronayne with colleagues Sinéad Feely connection and meaning in the chaos of life. Congrats to Mr. McCann! and Th omas McCarthy, nominators of Let the Great World Spin. – Th eresa Parise, Jane Bickford, Betsy Clarke, Kate Brown, Melissa Andrews Boston Public Library, USA

Th is was a book Richmond Public Library recommended to every reader who walked through our doors, and we are delighted that the IMPAC Dublin award will bring it similar attention worldwide. – Ellen J. Wolf (left) Richmond Public Library, USA

I read it when it was fi rst published “It’s a groundbreaking and heartbreaking McCann is very good at describing It is a wonderfully written novel, and was intrigued by the imagery and novel about New York at its wild time and making you feel a part of things, very close in its observation of human the stories of the lives of New Yorkers. by a wonderfully skilled writer, set sometimes in only a few pages. It invites longings and desires. I especially value After a lively discussion with my “Lunch against a time of sweeping political and readers to take time and savor every McCann’s empathy that never gets Box Book Club” they enthusiastically social change. A witty, touching and detail and every character.” sentimental. supported our choice for this award. entertaining read!” – Jacki Potratz - Doris Reinwald – Shannon Humphreys – Annette Krohn Milwaukee Public Library, USA Münchner Stadtbibliothek, Richmond Public Library, USA Stadtbüchereien Düsseldorf, Germany Germany

The International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award is presented annually for a novel written in English or translated into English.

Nominations are submitted by library systems in major cities throughout the world. 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. Th e 2012 longlist is announced – Dublin City Library & Archive, November 2011 Jason Clarke Photography Th e Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr. Andrew Montague, meets the 2012 judging panel. (L-R) Tim Parks, Mike McCormack, Philip Maguire, Deputy Dublin City Manager; Elizabeth Nunez, Evelyn Schlag, Judge Eugene Sullivan (non-voting Chair); Dubravka Ugresic, Margaret Hayes, Dublin City Librarian. November 2011. Jason Clarke Photography (L-R) Margaret Hayes, Dublin City Librarian discusses the longlist with Th e Lord Mayor of Dublin & Patron of the Award, Andrew Montague, while Tana French, Irish author of Faithful Place stands by. Pearse Street Public Library, Dublin, November 2011. Jason Clarke Photography Judges Tim Parks and Evelyn Schlag at the longlist announcement. Dublin City Library & Archive, November 2011. Eligible Titles 2012

Lyrics Alley Th e Lessons Born in Peru and raised in Chile, Isabel Allende is the author of many bestselling by Leila Aboulela by Naomi Alderman novels, including, most recently, Ines of My Nominated by: Nominated by: Soul, Zorro, Portrait in Sepia, and Daughter Aberdeen Library & Information Bibliothèques Municipales Geneva, Switzerland of Fortune. Her books have been translated Services, Scotland into more than 27 languages. She lives in A close-knit group of friends forms at Oxford California. Set in 1950s Sudan, Lyrics Alley is the story around the mercurial, charismatic fi gure of of the powerful Abuzied dynasty. With Mark, whose rackety trust-fund upbringing Mahmood Bey at its helm, the family can do has left him as troubled and dangerously Sunset Park no wrong. But when Mahmood’s son, Nur unpredictable as he is wildly promiscuous. by Paul Auster – the brilliant, charming heir to his business After graduation the group fragments, each empire – suff ers a near-fatal accident, his hopes locked in his or her own suddenly adult, Nominated by: of university and a glittering future are dashed pedestrian world. But Mark’s infl uence is Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio and his betrothal to his cousin and sweetheart, still strong… Emanuele III, Naples, Italy Soraya is broken off . As British rule is coming Stedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek Gent, Belgium to an end, the family is divided. Mahmood’s Naomi Alderman was born in 1974 and was In the sprawling fl atlands of Florida, 28-year- second wife, Nabilah, longs to return to Egypt. brought up in the Orthodox Jewish community old Miles is photographing the last traces of His fi rst wife, Waheeba, lives traditionally in Hendon, London, where she now lives. families who have abandoned their houses behind veils and closed doors and resents She is a graduate of the UEA creative writing due to debt or foreclosure. Haunted by guilt Nabilah’s infl uence on Mahmood. Meanwhile, course and has published short fi ction in a for having inadvertently caused the death of Nur must fi nd a way to live again in the number of anthologies. his step-brother, Miles fl ed New York and his world. Moving from the villages of Sudan to father and step-mother seven years before. cosmopolitan Cairo and a decimated post- colonial Britain, this is a sweeping tale of loss, He is kept in Florida by his relationship with faith and reconciliation. a teenage girl, Pilar, but when her family threatens to expose their relationship, Miles Leila Aboulela was born in 1964 in Cairo decides to protect Pilar by going back to and grew up in Khartoum. She is the author Brooklyn, where he settles in a squat to prepare of novels Th e Translator and Minaret. Leila’s himself to face the inevitable confrontation work has appeared in publications such as with his father. Sunset Park is above all, a story Granta, the Virginia Quarterly Review and the about love and forgiveness – not only among Washington Post. It has also been translated men and women, but also between fathers and into 13 languages. sons.

Th e Sky is Falling Paul Auster is the best-selling author of Invisible, Man in the Dark, Brooklyn Follies, by Caroline Adderson Th e Book of Illusions and Th e New York Trilogy, Nominated by: among many other works. His work has been Edmonton Public Library and Grant MacEwan translated into more than 30 languages. He University Library, Edmonton, Canada lives in Brooklyn, New York.

On a spring day in 2004, Jane Z. a physician’s wife and mother of a teenage son, opens her Th e Silence of Mohammed morning newspaper to see a familiar face. by Salim Bachi Sonia, a lost friend accused of terrorism, has Island Beneath the Sea just been released after twenty years. It all Translated from the original by Isabel Allende comes fl ooding back to Jane, how twenty years French by Sue Rose before her life took a very diff erent course. Translated from the original Spanish Nominated by: by Margaret Sayers Peden Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon, France At nineteen, Jane rents a room in a student Nominated by: Before becoming the prophet of Islam, house with a trio of idealists: Sonia, who yearns Biblioteca Daniel Cosío Villegas Mohammed was a simple man of fl esh and to save the world’s children from nuclear war; de El Colegio de México the Marxist-leaning Dieter; and the anarcho- blood who started life as a poor orphan in the feminist-pacifi st Pete. A bookish misfi t, her Born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue Arabian city of Mecca. Th rough his union with radical housemates quickly draw Jane into – the daughter of an African mother she never Khadija, he became a prosperous merchant NAG, a non-violent, anti-nuclear direct action knew and a white sailor who brought her into and caravaneer. He was visited by God at the group. Tension increases as the group mounts bondage – Zarité, known as Tété, survives a age of forty to become a prophet and visionary successive protests, until a bomb explodes and childhood of brutality and fear, fi nding solace statesman. Th e Silence of Mohammed is the story changes everything. in the traditional rhythms of African drums of “this exceptional man” (Bachi). and in her exhilarating initiation into the Caroline Adderson is the author of two mysteries of voodoo. Based on historical facts and legends, the novel previous novels A History of Forgetting and presents a fi ctionalised account of the life of Sitting Practice, two collections of short stories When twenty-year-old Toulouse Valmorain Mohammed told by four key characters: his and several books for young readers. Her work arrives on the island in 1770, he discovers fi rst wife, Khadija; his closest friend, Caliph has received numerous prize nominations and that running his father’s plantation is neither Abu Bakr; the fi ery warrior, General Khalid; awards. She lives in Vancouver. glamorous nor easy. Marriage also proves and his last love Aisha, who became his wife at problematic when, eight years later, he brings the age of nine. home a bride. But it is his teenaged slave, Tété, upon whom Valmorain becomes most Salim Bachi was born in Algeria. He studied dependent, as their lives intertwine across four literature in Algeria and France. His fi rst book, tumultuous decades. Le Chien d’Ulysse, was published in 2001 and awarded the Goncourt du Premier Roman.

www.impacdublinaward.ie 5 Eligible Titles 2012

Other works include La Kahéna, Autoportrait Rocks in the Belly Zoo City avec Grenade and Tuez-les tous. He lives in by Jon Bauer by Lauren Beukes France. Nominated by: Nominated by: Th e State Library of Victoria, Cape Town Central Library, South Africa Ship Breaker Melbourne, Australia Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam by Paolo Bacigalupi Rocks in the Belly is about a precocious eight- habit, and a talent for fi nding lost things. But Nominated by: year-old boy and the volatile adult he becomes. when a little old lady turns up dead and the Bibliothèque Municipale de Mulhouse, France During childhood his mother fosters boys, cops confi scate her last pay check, she’s forced despite the jealous turmoil it arouses in her son. to take on her least favourite kind of job – In America’s Gulf Coast region, where His jealousy reaches unmanageable proportions missing persons. grounded oil tankers are being broken down when she fosters Robert, triggering an event for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light that profoundly changes everyone. Especially Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2011. crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make Robert. quota – and hopefully live to see another day. Lauren Beukes is a writer, TV scriptwriter and But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an At twenty-eight the son returns to face his recovering journalist (although she occasionally exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent mother. He hasn’t forgiven her for what falls off the wagon). She has an MA in Creative hurricane, Nailer faces the most important happened. But now she’s the dependent one and Writing from the University of Cape Town decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it’s he the dominant force — a power he can’t help under André Brink, She lives in Cape Town worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful but abuse. with her husband and daughter. and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life. . . . Rocks in the Belly is about the destruction we wreak on one another in the pursuit of our In this powerful novel, award-winning author own happiness; how we never escape our Paolo Bacigalupi delivers a thrilling, fast-paced upbringing; and a stark reminder that the most adventure set in a vivid and raw, uncertain dangerous place for a child is within the family. future. Jon Bauer is the author of short stories, and Paolo Bacigalupi is a rising star in the science plays for stage and radio. His work has been fi ction community and has received awards published in Th e Daily Telegraph, Th e Sleepers for his work. He is the author of Pump Six, Almanac and Th e Bridport Prize, as well as Other Stories and Th e Windup Girl. He lives in broadcast on national radio. Rocks in the Belly is Western Colorado with his wife and son. his fi rst novel.

Gorée Point of Departure Th e Matter with Morris by Angela Barry by David Bergen Nominated by: Nominated by: Bermuda National Library, Hamilton Newfoundland & Labrador Public Libraries, Canada A chance encounter at Kennedy Airport with her ex-husband, Saliou Wade, takes When Morris Schutt, a prominent newspaper Magdalene and their now adult daughter, columnist, surveys his life he sees disaster Khadi, on a visit to him and his new family in everywhere. His son has just been killed in Th e Postmistress Senegal. Magdalene is understandably nervous, Afghanistan, and his newspaper has put him on remembering the pain of the mutual cultural indefi nite leave; his psychiatrist wife, Lucille, by Sarah Blake incomprehension – she is a St Lucian – that seems headed for the door; he is strongly Nominated by: ended the marriage almost twenty years before. attracted to Ursula, the wife of a dairy farmer; Denver Public Library, USA In Senegal, whilst the now cosmopolitan Saliou and his daughter appears to be having an aff air appears to exist comfortably in multiple worlds, with one of her professors. In 1940, Iris James is the postmistress in there are more complex relationships to manage coastal Franklin, Massachusetts. Iris knows with members of his large extended family. What is a thinking man to do but turn to more about the townspeople than she will ever But the sensitivities are not merely social and Cicero and Plato and Socrates in search of the say, and believes her job is to deliver secrets. Yet cultural. A visit Khadi and her half-sister truth? Or better still; call one of those discreet one day she does the unthinkable: slips a letter Maimouna make to the slave port of Gorée has “dating services” in search of happiness? But into her pocket, reads it, and doesn’t deliver it. consequences that lay bare unfi nished business happiness, as Morris discovers, is not that easy between West Indians and Africans, between to fi nd. Meanwhile, Frankie Bard broadcasts from Magdalene and Saliou, and Khadi and her overseas with Edward R. Murrow. Her parents. An unforgettable story with a vitality, charm dispatches beg listeners to pay heed as the and intelligence all its own. Nazis bomb London nightly. Most of the Angela Barry lives and works in Bermuda. Her townspeople of Franklin think the war can’t writing has been published in Th e Massachusetts David Bergen is an award-winning author of touch them. But both Iris and Frankie know Review and she is the recipient of a James fi ve previous novels including A Year of Lesser, better... Michener Creative Writing Fellowship. Th e Case of Lena S. and Th e Time in Between and a collection of short stories. He lives in Th e Postmistress is a tale of two worlds – one Winnipeg with his family. shattered by violence, the other wilfully naïve – and of two women whose job is to deliver the news, yet who fi nd themselves unable to do so.

Sarah Blake lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, the poet Josh Weiner, and their two sons.

6 www.impacdublinaward.ie Eligible Titles 2012

Aphrodite’s War east, with the Japanese occupying Singapore, the three are thrown together in unexpected by Andrea Busfi eld ways, and tested to breaking point. Nominated by: Cyprus Library, Nicosia A Diff erent Sky paints a scintillating panorama of thirty tumultuous years in Singapore’s Th e island is divided, but one man’s love will history through the passions and struggles of never be compromised. characters the reader will fi nd it hard to forget.

Cyprus, 1955 – a guerrilla war is raging and Th e author of seven previous novels, Meira four Greek brothers are growing up to the Chand is of Indian-Swiss parentage. Born familiar sounds of exploding bombs and sniper and educated in London, she lived most of her fi re. adult life in Japan before moving to Singapore in 1997. Determined to avenge the death of his elder brother and to win the heart of his beloved Praxi, young Loukis joins a cell of schoolboy Exley terrorists operating in the mountains. But by Brock Clarke when his cohorts blow themselves up in a freak accident, he returns home in shock, yearning Nominated by: for the warm embrace of his family – and of his Boston Public Library, USA sweetheart. For nine-year-old Miller, who lives with his But his adored Praxi is now married to someone Th e Vintage and the Gleaning mother in Watertown, New York, life has else, and playing at her feet is a young toddler… become a struggle to make sense of his father’s by Jeremy Chambers disappearance, for which he blames himself. Andrea Busfi eld is a British journalist. Whilst Nominated by: Th en, when he becomes convinced that he has covering the fall of the Taliban for the News Th e State Library of Victoria, found his father lying comatose in the local of the World she fell in love with Afghanistan Melbourne, Australia VA hospital, a victim of the war in Iraq, Miller and made it her home. She is now the deputy begins a search for the one person he believes editor of the Gulf Times. Aphrodite’s War is her Th e Vintage and the Gleaning is set in a can save him, the famously reclusive — and, fi rst novel. winemaking town in the north-east of Victoria, unfortunately, dead — Frederick Exley, a close to the Murray River. Smithy is a retired Watertown native and the author of his father’s shearer turned vineyard worker who has favourite book, the “fi ctional memoir” A Fan’s Bandit Love recently been forced to give up drinking after a Notes. Th e story of Miller’s search, told by lifetime of alcoholism. In his new sobriety he is by Massimo Carlotto both Miller himself and his somewhat fl aky contemplating the world in which he lives and therapist, ultimately becomes an exploration Translated from the original the man he has been and become with a new of the diff erence between what we believe Italian by Antony Shugaar understanding. Assaulted by long forgotten to be real and what is in fact real, and how Nominated by: memories, Smithy is forced to take stock of his challenging it can be to reconcile the two. Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma, Italy own past. Brock Clarke is the author of two previous Closing the door on a crime ridden past, Marco Living in the same town is Charlotte, a young novels and two short story collections. He lives Buratti plans to spend the rest of his days woman in a dangerous relationship, whose in Portland, Maine, and teaches at Bowdoin in the darkness of a seedy nightclub sipping misfortunes have led her into an uneasy College. Calvados and listening to the blues. But things friendship with Smithy. It is in his confused don’t quite work out as he planned: though and ultimately futile attempts to help Charlotte he may be through with his past, his past that he seeks redemption. Th e Water Th eatre isn’t through with him. When his gangster by Lindsay Clarke friend, Beniamino Rossini’s girlfriend is Jeremy Chambers was born in 1974 and kidnapped, Buratti is forced to investigate a studied at the University of Melbourne, Nominated by: case of international drug dealing. He will be completing majors in Philosophy and English. London’s Public Libraries, UK thrown headfi rst into the underworld he had He has also undertaken studies with the As war-reporter Martin Crowther arrives in struggled to escape. Here, new and old criminal Australian Centre for Psychoanalysis. He lives Umbria, still raw from a recent assignment in organizations collide and innocent bystanders in Melbourne. Africa, and from a failing love aff air, a storm are as hard to fi nd as straight cops. hits and the sky opens. Th ings are on the move Marco “Th e Alligator” Buratti is one of the A Diff erent Sky inside him too, as he comes to the small village of Fontanalba, on a mission to track down two most fully realized characters in contemporary by Meira Chand crime fi ction. friends from a lifetime ago. Nominated by: Massimo Carlotto was born in Padua, Italy, Th e National Library Board, Singapore Adam and Marina are the estranged children and now lives in Sardinia. In addition to the of his mentor, Hal Brigshaw, who wants to Singapore 1927 and three young people are many titles in his extremely popular Alligator summon them home. But there are reasons starting to question whether this in-between series, he is also the author of Th e Fugitive, for their self-imposed exile. An air of secrecy island can ever truly be their home. Mei Death’s Dark Abyss, and most recently, also surrounds preparations for an event at Lan comes from a famous Chinese dynasty Northeast. His novels have been translated into Fontanalba in which Adam and Marina have but yearns to free herself from its stifl ing many languages. an extraordinary role to play. As Martin waits, traditions; ten-year-old Howard seethes at the trapped between duty and desire, he is both indignities heaped on his fellow Eurasians by intrigued and dismayed by his dealings with the colonial British; Raj, fresh off the boat from a close-knit community, who seem bent on India, wants only to work hard and become a protecting their own. successful businessman. As the years pass, and the Second World War sweeps through the

www.impacdublinaward.ie 7 Eligible Titles 2012

Lindsay Clarke is the author of 7 novels, Th e Reversal By Nightfall including Th e Chymical Wedding, which won by Michael Connelly by Michael Cunningham the Whitbread Award for Fiction in 1989. He lives in Somerset with his wife, who is a Nominated by: Nominated by: ceramic artist. Laramie County Library System, Cheyenne, USA Houston Public Library, USA Chicago Public Library, USA Long time defence attorney Mickey Haller is Th e Terrible Privacy of recruited to change stripes and prosecute the Peter and Rebecca Harris: mid-forties denizens high-profi le retrial of a brutal child murder. of Manhattan’s Soho, nearing the apogee of Maxwell Sim After 24 years in prison, convicted killer Jason committed careers in the arts—he a dealer, she by Jonathan Coe Jessup has been exonerated by new DNA an editor. With a spacious loft, a college-age Nominated by: evidence. Haller is convinced Jessup is guilty, daughter in Boston, and lively friends, they are Bibliothèque Municipale de Nice, France and he takes the case on the condition that admirable, enviable contemporary urbanites Th e State Library of South Australia, Adelaide he gets to choose his investigator, LAPD with every reason; it seems, to be happy. Th en Detective Harry Bosch. Rebecca’s much younger look-alike brother, Maxwell Sim seems to have hit rock bottom: Ethan (known in the family as Mizzy, “the separated from his wife and daughter, estranged With the odds and the evidence against them, mistake”), shows up for a visit. A beautiful, from his father, and with no one to confi de in Bosch and Haller must nail a sadistic killer beguiling twenty-three-year-old with a history even though he has 74 friends on Facebook. once and for all. Opposing them is Jessup, of drug problems, Mizzy is wayward, at He’s not even sure whether he’s got a job now out on bail, a defence attorney who excels loose ends, looking for direction. And in his until suddenly a strange business proposition at manipulating the media, and a runaway presence, Peter fi nds himself questioning his comes his way which involves a long journey eyewitness reluctant to testify. If Bosch is sure artists, their work, his career—the entire world to the Shetland Isles – and a voyage into his of anything, it is that Jason Jessup plans to kill he has so carefully constructed. family’s past which throws up some surprising again. revelations. Michael Cunningham’s masterly new novel is a Michael Connelly is the author of the heartbreaking look at the way we live now. Jonathan Coe’s new book is a story for our bestselling Harry Bosch series of novels as well times: Maxwell fi nds himself at sea in the as the recent #1 New York Times bestsellers Michael Cunningham is the author of the modern world, surrounded by social networks Th e Lincoln Lawyer, Th e Brass Verdict and Th e novels Th e Hours, A Home at the End of the but unable to relate properly to anyone. Yet as Scarecrow. He spends his time in California World, Specimen Days, and Flesh and Blood. He he delves into his family history he manages to and Florida. received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the fi nd the resources to survive. PEN/Faulkner Award for Th e Hours. He is a Professor at Brooklyn College, New York. Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in Th e Passage 1961. He has written eight novels including: by Justin Cronin Th e Accidental Woman, What a Carve Up! Point Omega Nominated by: (which won the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Th e National Library of Maldives, Male by Don DeLillo Prize) and Th e Rotters’ Club (winner of the Nominated by: Everyman Wodehouse Prize). He lives in An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and Stadtbücherei Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany London with his wife and two daughters. survival, Th e Passage is the story of Amy— Bibliothèque Municipale de Nice, France abandoned by her mother at the age of six, Stedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek Gent, Belgium pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy Mockingjay fi gures behind a government experiment of Richard Elster, a retired secret war adviser, by Suzanne Collins apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent has retreated to a forlorn house in a desert, Nominated by: Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her ‘somewhere south of nowhere’. But his planned Denver Public Library, USA down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet isolation is interrupted when he is joined by a girl—and risks everything to save her. As the young fi lmmaker intent on documenting his Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast experience in a one-take fi lm. Th e two men survived the Hunger Games twice. But now secures her escape—but he can’t stop society’s sit on the deck, drinking and talking. Weeks that she’s made it out of the bloody arena collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles go by. And then Elster’s daughter Jessie visits. alive, she’s still not safe. Th e Capitol is angry. and decades, into a future dark with violence When a devastating event follows, all the men’s Th e Capitol wants revenge. Who do they and despair, she is fi lled with the mysterious talk, the accumulated meaning of conversation think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. and terrifying knowledge that only she has the and isolation, is thrown into question. And what’s worse, President Snow has made power to save the ruined world. it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Written in hypnotic prose, this substantial Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people Justin Cronin is the author of Mary and novel is both a metaphysical meditation of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this O’Neil, which won the PEN/Hemingway and a deeply unsettling mystery, from thrilling fi nal instalment of Suzanne Collins’s Award and the Stephen Crane Prize, and Th e which one thing emerges: loss, fi erce and groundbreaking Th e Hunger Games trilogy Summer Guest. A professor of English at Rice incomprehensible. promises to be one of the most talked about University, he lives with his family in Houston, books of the year. Texas. Don DeLillo, the author of fi fteen novels, including Falling Man, White Noise and Suzanne Collins is the author of the Underworld, has won many honours in bestselling Underland Chronicles, which started America and abroad, including the National with Gregor the Overlander. In Th e Hunger Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Games, she continues to explore the eff ects Fiction. He has also written three plays. of war and violence on those coming of age. Suzanne lives with her family in Connecticut.

8 www.impacdublinaward.ie Eligible Titles 2012

and self-discovery unfold, the novel proves ‘Th is is a truly remarkable novel. It presents an the transcendent power of stories and the utterly unique way to talk about love, all the meaningfulness of human expression itself. while giving us a fresh, expansive eye on the world in which we live’ New York Times Book Chitra Divakaruni is an award-winning Review and bestselling writer, poet, and fi fteen-time novelist. Her writing has appeared in more Born in 1969, Emma Donoghue is an Irish than fi fty magazines, including Th e Atlantic writer who spent eight years in England Monthly and Th e New Yorker. She is the Betty before moving to Canada. Her fi ction includes and Gene McDavid Professor of Creative Slammerkin, Life Mask, Touchy Subjects and the Writing at the University of Houston. international bestseller Room (shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange Prizes).

Th e Einstein Enigma by José Rodrigues dos Santos Translated from the original Portuguese by Lisa Carter Nominated by: Biblioteca Municipal Central de Lisboa, Portugal Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Porto, Portugal Witness the Night Princeton, New Jersey-1951. A police-escorted motorcade stops at a small, unremarkable house by Kishwar Desai while an old man with a shock of white hair Nominated by: jumps out of the lead car. As he ambles up the Birmingham Libraries, UK walkway, another man around the same age, Durga, a fourteen-year-old girl, found all alone also sporting wild white hair, descends from in a house in Punjab. Silent, terrifi ed, and the the porch and warmly greets him. Operatives sole suspect in the mass murder of thirteen from the CIA are also close by, recording the members of her family. Simran, a whisky- conversation taking place inside the house swigging, chain-smoking social worker from between newly arrived Israeli Prime Minister Delhi, is Durga’s sole hope, for Simran is the David Ben-Gurion and his host, the world- only one who believes that she may be more renowned scientist Albert Einstein. Th e subject a victim than a suspect. As Simran tries to Room of their conversation: nuclear weapons and the unravel the mystery of what really happened by Emma Donoghue existence of God. that night of the multiple murders, she comes Nominated by: Cairo, Egypt—today. World-famous in close and often uncomfortable contact with Th e State Library of Tasmania, Australia cryptanalyst Th omas Noronha is hired by a Jullundur and its people. Th e prejudices she Th e State Library of Queensland, Australia mysterious, dark-haired woman to decipher a encounters are deep-seated and the secrets Saint John Free Public Library, Canada cryptogram hidden in a secret document that manifold. Simran knows she cannot rest until Halifax Public Libraries, Canada has recently been discovered. Penned by Albert she has uncovered the whole truth. A chilling Toronto Public Library, Canada Einstein, the manuscript’s title is, simply, Die fi rst novel that gets to the heart of tradition- Calgary Public Library, Canada Gottesformel: Th e God Formula. bound India. Edmonton Public Library & Grant MacEwan University Library, Canada José Rodrigues dos Santos is a professor at the Kishwar Desai has worked in print and London’s Public Libraries, UK New University of Lisbon and a journalist at broadcast media as journalist, scriptwriter, TV Gateshead Libraries, UK RTP, the Portuguese public television station. anchor, producer and the head of a TV channel Bibliothèque Municipale de Strasbourg, France He is the author of the international bestseller in India. Witness the Night is her fi rst novel and Limerick City Library, Ireland Codex 632. Born in Mozambique, he lives in winner of the 2010 COSTA fi rst novel award. Dublin City Public Libraries, Ireland Portugal. Th e National Library of Maldives, Male One Amazing Th ing Dunedin Public Libraries, New Zealand Jacksonville Public Library, USA Th e Pleasure Seekers by Chitra Divakaruni San Diego Public Library, USA by Tishani Doshi Nominated by: Denver Public Library, USA Nominated by: Katona József County Library, Hungary Public Library of Cincinnati & India International Centre Library, New Delhi Hamilton County, USA Late afternoon in a passport and visa offi ce in Chicago Public Library, USA Meet the Patel-Joneses: Babo, Sian, Mayuri an unnamed American city. Most customers LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library System, USA and Bean, in their little house next-door to the have gone, but a punky teenager, an upper-class Punjab Women’s Association. As the twentieth Caucasian couple, a young Muslim-American Jack is fi ve. He lives with his Ma. Th ey live in a century creaks and croaks its way along – man, and fi ve others remain. Out of nowhere, single, locked room. Th ey don’t have the key. somewhere out there Charles and Diana an earthquake rips through the lull, trapping get hitched; Indira Gandhi is assassinated these nine people together, with little food Jack and Ma are prisoners. by her own bodyguards; cable TV arrives in and no way to escape the slowly fl ooding India – these four navigate their way through offi ce. When the psychological and emotional ‘Th is book will break your heart . . . It is the the uncharted territory of a ‘hybrid’ family: stress becomes nearly too much for them to most vivid, radiant and beautiful expression of the hustle and bustle of Babo’s relatives, the bear, the young graduate student suggests that maternal love I have ever read’ Irish Times faraway phone-line crackle of Sian’s, the eternal each tell a personal tale, “one amazing thing” ‘I’ve never read a more heart-burstingly, gut wisdom and soft bosom of great-grandmother from their lives. As their surprising stories of wrenchingly compassionate novel . . . As for Ba, the perils of fi rst love, lost innocence and romance, marriage, family, political upheaval, sweet, bright, funny Jack, I wanted to scoop old age, and the big question: what do you do him up out of the novel and never let him go’ with the space your loved ones leave behind? Daily Mail www.impacdublinaward.ie 9 Eligible Titles 2012

Tishani Doshi eff ortlessly captures the quirks Mirjana Đurđević (Belgrade, 1956), is a objectives: to remember the circumstances and calamities of one unusual clan in a story of teacher at the Engineering-Geodetics Trade of his fall, and why he now feels repulsed by identity, family, belonging and all-transcending School, and a writer. She has published several his beautiful young wife. His experiment love. books in her profession. For her novel Kaya, results in 8 notebooks, in which he records Belgrade and the Good American she received the his memories of his childhood, the women in Tishani Doshi is a poet and dancer based in prestigious Meša Selimović Award for the best his life, his battle against a major corporation Madras, India. Her fi rst collection of poetry, book in the region in 2010. bent on appropriating his land, and his eff orts Countries of the Body, won the Forward Poetry to contribute to Malaysia’s progress and Prize for best fi rst collection in 2006. Th e development while preserving local traditional Pleasure Seekers, published by Bloomsbury, is knowledge and his own moral integrity. her fi rst novel. Chuah Guat Eng was Malaysia’s fi rst English- language woman novelist. She read English Th e Betrayal Literature at University of Malaya Kuala by Helen Dunmore Lumpur, and German Literature at Ludwig- Maximilian University, Munich. Nominated by: Gateshead Libraries, UK

Leningrad, 1952. Andrei, a young hospital Counterpoint doctor, and Anna, a nursery school teacher, by Anna Enquist are forging a life together in the post-war, Translated from the original post siege wreckage. But their happiness is Dutch by J.K. Ringold precarious, like that of millions of Russians Nominated by: who must avoid the claws of Stalin’s merciless Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, Ministry of State Security. So when Andrei is Th e Netherlands asked to treat the seriously ill child of a senior Openbare Bibliotheek Eindhoven, secret police offi cer, he and Anna are fearful. Th e Netherlands Can they avoid the whispers and watchful eyes Th e Association of Public Libraries of those who will say or do anything to save Th e Hague, Th e Netherlands themselves? Gemeentebibliotheek Utrecht, Th e Netherlands Th e Betrayal is a powerful and touching novel A Visit from the Goon Squad Th e unnamed woman practices Bach’s of ordinary people in the grip of a terrible and by Jennifer Egan Goldberg Variations. As she practices, sinister regime, and a moving portrait of a love Nominated by: tenaciously, almost grimly, it soon becomes that will not be extinguished. Bibliotheek Rotterdam, Th e Netherlands clear that she is seeking not only technical Boston Public Library, USA was born in Yorkshire in control and intellectual understanding but an Helen Dunmore Hartford Public Library, USA 1952. She has published eight novels including: emotional release from the burden of her past. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, USA Zennor in Darkness, A Spell of Winter and Th e Kansas City Public Library, USA Slowly but surely, variation by variation, Siege. She is also a poet, children’s novelist and innocent, everyday memories unfold, of her short-story writer. She lives in Bristol Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and family life with her husband, her son and, record executive. Sasha is the passionate, especially, her daughter. In this deeply moving troubled young woman he employs. Here Kaya, Belgrade and the Good novel, elegantly translated from the original Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, Dutch, acclaimed novelist Anna Enquist American along with the inner lives of a host of other skilfully counterpoints the diff erent mood and by Mirjana Đurđević characters whose paths intersect with theirs. pace of each variation with the varying moods With music pulsing on every page, A Visit and textures of the woman’s memories. It is a Translated from the original from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilarating Serbian by Alice Copple-Tosic journey of loss and longing, rage and despair, novel of self-destruction and redemption. It is a which ultimately affi rms the beauty of music, Nominated by: Pulitzer Prize Winner and the National Book family and maternal love. City Library of Herceg-Novi, Montenegro Critics Circle Award Winner. City Library of Belgrade, Serbia Anna Enquist is one of Holland’s best loved Jennifer Egan is the author of Th e Keep, Look writers of quality fi ction, including the novels A vivid picture of a period, ennobled by robust at Me, Th e Invisible Circus, and the story Th e Secret and Th e Masterpiece and has been story-telling. Th e story-teller, one moment collection Emerald City. Her stories have translated into many languages. She also an omniscient observer, the next moment been published in Th e New Yorker, Harper’s writes poetry, plays and short stories and is a an unnamed character in the story – talks Magazine, GQ , Zoetrope, All-Story, and practicing psychiatrist. ironically and humorously about a carefree Ploughshares. She lives with her husband and world which is not aware of the oncoming sons in Brooklyn. cataclysm that will be caused by the outbreak Shadow Tag of Nazism in Germany. Th e novel conjures up the atmosphere of Belgrade before World Days of Change by Louise Erdrich War II, and the story centres mostly on the by Chuah Guat Eng Nominated by: small Kalmyk population which settled there Pikes Peak Library District, together with the Russians who fl ed in the Nominated by: Colorado Springs, USA face of the October Revolution. At its core, National Library of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpar When Irene America discovers that her artist there is an auto-ironic portrait of a not-so- Days of Change is a sequel to Echoes of Silence. popular authoress, who compensates for her husband, Gil, has been reading her diary, she Th e narrator is 55-year old Hafi z, whose name begins a secret Blue Notebook, stashed securely want of productivity with a fashionable life means ‘the preserver’ and ‘the memorizer’. in the Yugoslav capital, participating in local in a safe-deposit box. Th ere she records the When his story begins, Hafi z is suff ering truth about her life and marriage, while turning scandals and running her own small detective from memory loss following a fall down investigation. her Red Diary—hidden where Gil will fi nd a ravine in Ulu Banir. Unable to talk to a it—into a manipulative charade. As Irene drifts psychiatrist, he uses the I Ching, the Chinese into alcoholism and she and Gil fi ght to keep ‘book of changes’ to trigger his memory. His

10 www.impacdublinaward.ie Eligible Titles 2012 up appearances for their three children, their ‘A magnifi cent re-imagining of a signal Nigel Farndale was born in North Yorkshire, home becomes a place of increasing violence moment in our cultural history, this is both a in 1964. He is the author of fi ve books, and secrecy. novel of surpassing tenderness and a primer including Th e Blasphemer (which was on creative writing. A rare and transforming shortlisted for the 2010 Costa Novel Award). Alternating between Irene’s twin journals and reading experience.’ – Kate de Goldi He now lives on the Hampshire-Sussex border an unfl inching third-person narrative, Louise with his wife Mary and their three children. Erdrich’s Shadow Tag fearlessly explores the Patrick Evans is the author of two previous complex nature of love, the fl uid boundaries novels (Being Eaten Alive and Making It) and of identity, and the anatomy of one family’s a number of plays. He lives in Christchurch Th e Hut Builder struggle for survival and redemption. and has taught New Zealand literature at the by Laurence Fearnley University of Canterbury since 1978. Louise Erdrich is the author of thirteen novels, Nominated by: volumes of poetry, short stories, children’s Wellington City Libraries, New Zealand books, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her Book of Lost Th reads As a boy in the early 1940s, young Boden novel Love Medicine won the National Book by Tess Evans Black fi nds his life changed for ever the day Critics Circle Award. Louise Erdrich lives in Nominated by: his neighbour Dudley drives him over the Minnesota. Th e State Library of Victoria, hills into the vast snow-covered plains of the Melbourne, Australia Mackenzie country. Unexpectedly his world Visitation opens up and he discovers a love of landscape Tender, funny and memorable, Book of Lost and a fascination with words that will guide by Jenny Erpenbeck Th reads is a story about love and loss, parents him throughout his life, as he forges a career Translated from the original and children, hope, faith and the value of as a butcher and poet, spends a joyous summer German by Susan Bernofsky simple kindness. building a hut on the slopes of Mount Cook Nominated by: and climbs to the summit in the company of Sir Moss has run away from Melbourne to Stadtbibliothek Bremen, Germany Edmund Hillary. Opportunity on the trail of a man she knows Zentral-und Landesbibliothek Berlin, Germany only by name. But her arrival sets in train A moving exploration of one man’s journey and San Diego Public Library, USA events that disturb the long-held secrets of the events which shape him, Th e Hut Builder is Encompassing over one hundred years of three of the town’s inhabitants: Finn, a brilliant also an evocative celebration of the mountain German history, from the nineteenth century mathematician, who has become a recluse; world and the wonder of life. to the Weimar Republic, from World War II Lily Pargetter, eighty-three-year-old knitter of to the Socialist German Democratic Republic, tea cosies; and Sandy, the town buff oon, who Laurence Fearnley is the author of eight and fi nally reunifi cation and its aftermath, dreams of a Great Galah. novels. Her second novel, Room, was shortlisted Visitation off ers the life stories of twelve for the Montana NZ Book Awards in 2001. It is only as Moss, Finn, Lily and Sandy individuals who over the decades seek to make Her book Edwin and Matilda was runner-up develop unlikely friendships that they fi nd their home in one magical little house. Th e in fi ction for the Montana NZ Book Awards in a way to lay their sorrows to rest and knit novel breaks into the everyday life of the house 2008. She lives in Dunedin. together the threads that will restore them to and shimmers through it, while relating the life. passions and fates of its inhabitants. Elegant Th e Book Club and poetic, Visitation forms a literary mosaic Tess Evans lives in Melbourne where she by Marjolijn Februari of the last century, tearing open wounds and worked in the TAFE system, primarily off ering moments of reconciliation, with its managing programmes for the unemployed. Translated from the original drama and its exquisite evocation of a landscape Book of Lost Th reads is her fi rst novel. Dutch by Paul Vincent no political upheaval can truly change. Nominated by: Hoofdstedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek, Critically acclaimed Jenny Erphenbeck was Th e Blasphemer Brussels, Belgium born in 1967 in East Berlin. Th e author of Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, Th e Book of Words and Th e Old Child & Other by Nigel Farndale Th e Netherlands Stories, she has won various awards, including Nominated by: Openbare Bibliotheek Eindhoven, the prestigious Solothurn Literature Prize and Tampere City Library, Finland Th e Netherlands the Heimito von Doderer Prize. Her works Foundation Bibliotheek, have been translated worldwide. He had always been scared of fl ying. Now, the fear is real. A plane crash. Th e water is Th e Hague, Th e Netherlands rising over his mouth. In his nostrils. Lungs. Gifted As Daniel gasps, he swallows; and punches Th irty-year-old Th eresa Pellikaan is typical at his seat-belt. Nancy, the woman he loves, of the wealthy middle classes – with her by Patrick Evans is trapped in her seat. He clambers over her, respectable background, successful husband Nominated by: pushing her face into the headrest. It is a refl ex, and house in a rich village. When her former Christchurch City Libraries, New Zealand visceral action made without rational thought… schoolmate Ruth Ackermann, makes waves Wellington City Libraries, New Zealand with an international bestseller, but none of But Daniel Kennedy did it. And already we the villagers ever mention her achievement, One day in 1955 the ‘father of New Zealand have judged him from the comfort of our own not even the literary circle of Th eresa’s father, fi ction’ fi nds a young woman on his doorstep. lives. famous civil rights scholar Randolf Pellikaan, A writer herself, she has recently emerged from Th eresa begins to wonder why. It can’t only be a lengthy spell in hospital and is looking for Almost a hundred years earlier, Daniel’s great- because it’s not ‘literature’. It emerges that there somewhere safe to live and write. Somewhat to grandfather goes over the top at Passchendaele. is a dark secret in the village. Every member his own surprise, not to mention discomfort, he A shell explodes, and he wakes up alone and of the book club has a reason to keep quiet takes her in. What happens behind that high lost in the hell of no-man’s-land. Where are and Ruth Ackerman’s novel threatens to bring Takapuna hedge in the ensuing year is the story the others? Has he been left behind? And if he the past into the present, with devastating told in this delightful and moving novel. doesn’t fi nd his unit, is he a deserter? results. Unable to cope with the silence, Th eresa investigates, no matter the consequences. Love; cowardice; trust; forgiveness. How will any of us behave when we are pushed to extremes? www.impacdublinaward.ie 11 Eligible Titles 2012

Marjolijn Februari studied Art History, Shakespeare’s unforgettable story. As Julie on Faithful Place. He and Rosie Daly were Philosophy and Law. Th e Book Club is her crosses paths with the descendants of the all ready to run away to London together. But second novel. She has also published several families who turned medieval Siena upside on the winter night when they were supposed collections of essays and has written a Saturday down, she begins to realize that the notorious to leave, Rosie didn’t show. Frank took it for column for a Dutch newspaper since 1999. curse – ‘a plague on both your houses!’ – is still granted that she’d dumped him. He never went at work. home again.

Anne Fortier grew up in Europe, in Denmark Twenty-two years later, Rosie’s suitcase shows mainly. After university she moved to the US, up behind a fi replace in a derelict house on where she worked in fi lm and television before Faithful Place and Frank, now an undercover writing Juliet, inspired by the very fi rst Romeo detective, fi nds himself straight back in the and Juliet story, which was set in Siena. dark tangle of relationships he left behind.

Tana French grew up in Ireland, Italy, the Freedom US and Malawi, and has lived in Dublin since by Jonathan Franzen 1990. She trained as a professional actress at Trinity College, Dublin, and has worked in Nominated by: theatre, fi lm and voiceover. Zentral-und Landesbibliothek Berlin, Germany Leipziger Stadtische Bibliotheken, Germany Stadtbücherei Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany Consolation Biblioteques de Barcelona, Spain by Anna Gavalda Veria Central Public Library, Greece Lincoln Library, Springfi eld, USA Translated from the original Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale French by Alison Anderson Firenze, Florence, Italy Nominated by: Liverpool Libraries & Information Services, UK Biblioteques de Barcelona, Spain Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs, USA An international bestseller and French Th e Memory of Love Toronto Public Library, Canada publishing sensation Consolation is a dazzling, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, USA heartbreaking tale of one man, two remarkable by Aminatta Forna Kansas City Public Library, USA women and an unforgettable transvestite. Nominated by: Auckland Libraries, New Zealand Patty and Walter Berglund were the new Charles Balanda is forty-seven; a successful pioneers of old St. Paul – the gentrifi ers, the architect, he is constantly on the move. But Freetown, Sierra Leone: a devastating civil war hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the from the moment he hears about the death has left an entire populace with terrible secrets Whole Foods generation. Patty was an enviably of the woman he once loved – Anouk, the to keep. In the capital’s hospital, Kai, a gifted perfect mother and the wife of Walter’s dreams. tragically big-hearted mother of a childhood young surgeon is plagued by demons that are friend – his life begins to unravel until, one day, beginning to threaten his livelihood. Elsewhere But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds he fi nds himself on a Paris pavement covered in in the hospital lies Elias Cole, a university have become a mystery. Why has their teenage blood. But fate brings him one fi nal chance to professor who recalls the love that obsessed him son moved in with the aggressively Republican be happy in Kate, an enchanting young woman, and drove him to acts that are far from heroic. family next door? Why has Walter taken a job herself damaged but fearless and in love with As past and present intersect, Kai and Elias are working with Big Coal? Most of all, what has life. Th e resulting story is a triumphant, drawn unwittingly closer by Adrian, a British happened to poor Patty? Why has the bright spellbinding and ultimately consoling novel psychiatrist with good intentions, and into the star of Barrier Street become ‘a very diff erent about the power of a second chance. path of one woman at the centre of their stories. kind of neighbour’, an implacable Fury coming Th e Memory of Love is a heartbreaking story of unhinged before the street’s attentive eyes? Born in 1970, Anna Gavalda was a teacher ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. whose collection of stories, I Wish Someone In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom’s Were Waiting for Me Somewhere, shot her to Aminatta Forna was born in Glasgow, raised intensely realized characters, as they struggle fame. Her work has been translated into 36 in Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom. to learn how to live in an ever more confusing languages. Th e mother of two small children, Her books include Ancestor Stones, and Th e world, Franzen has produced an indelible and she lives and writes just outside Paris. Devil that Danced on the Water, a memoir of deeply moving portrait of our time. her dissident father and her country. In 2007 Aminatta was named by Vanity Fair as one of Jonathan Franzen was born in 1959 and is Th e Only Witness to Beauty the author of novels Th e Twenty-Seventh City, Africa’s most promising new writers. by Miro Gavran Strong Motion, and Th e Corrections for which he received the National Book Award in 2001. He Translated from the original Croatian Juliet writes frequently for the New Yorker, and lives by Nina H. Kay-Antoljak by Anne Fortier in New York City. Nominated by: Gradska Knjižnica Rijeka, Croatia Nominated by: Knjižnica Otona Župancica, Lubljana, Slovenia Richland County Public Library, Columbia, USA Faithful Place Th e Only Witness to Beauty is an intriguing A stunning debut novel that follows a young by Tana French love story that unfolds in an identifi able woman who discovers that her family’s origins Nominated by: Zagreb setting, with short episodes set on the reach all the way back to literature’s greatest Lincoln City Libraries , USA exotic island of Malta. Th e hero is a forty- star-crossed lovers. year-old in love with a mysterious young Th e hotly anticipated third novel of the Dublin woman. Unusually sensitive characters, torn by When Julie Jacobs inherits a key to a safety murder squad from the New York Times emotions that overwhelm them, try to bond the deposit box in Siena, she is told it will lead her bestselling author. to an old family treasure. Soon she is launched fragments of their innermost feelings. Toying on a precarious journey into the true history Back in 1985, Frank Mackey was nineteen, with truth and lies, this novel also toys with of her ancestor Giulietta, whose legendary growing up poor in Dublin’s inner city, and various story-telling perspectives, off ering the love for a young man named Romeo inspired living crammed into a small fl at with his family reader memorable enjoyment.

12 www.impacdublinaward.ie Eligible Titles 2012

Miro Gavran is a contemporary Croatian Th e Widower’s Tale luck, or just survive. Lord of Misrule follows author. His works have been translated into fi ve characters – scarred and lonely dreamers in by Julia Glass 32 languages, and his books have come out in the American grain – through a year and four 150 diff erent editions at home and abroad. He Nominated by: races at Indian Mound Downs, downriver from lives in Zagreb, with his wife actress Mladena Th e National Library of Maldives, Male Wheeling, West Virginia. Gavran and family. San José Public Library, USA Horseman Tommy Hansel has a scheme Seventy-year-old Percy Darling is settling to rescue his failing stable: He’ll ship four Th e Beauty of Humanity happily into retirement: reading novels, unknown but ready horses to Indian Mound Movement watching old movies, and swimming naked Downs, run them in cheap claiming races at in his pond. But his routines are disrupted long odds, and then get out fast before anyone by Camilla Gibb when he is persuaded to let a locally beloved notices. Th e problem is, at this rundown Nominated by preschool take over his barn. As Percy sees his riverfront half-maile racetrack in the Northern Vancouver Public Library, Canada rural refuge overrun by children, parents, and Panhandle, everybody notices …. teachers, he must re-examine the solitary life he Set in contemporary Vietnam, this is the story has made in the three decades since the sudden Jaimy Gordon was born in Baltimore. Lord of a country undergoing momentous change. death of his wife. With equal parts aff ection of Misrule won the National Book Award for Tu’ is a young tour guide working in Hanoi for and humour, Julia Glass spins a captivating tale Fiction in 2011. Her third novel, Bogeywoman, a company called New Dawn but while he leads about a man who can no longer remain aloof was a Los Angeles Times Best Book for 2000 tourists through his city, he starts to wonder from his community, his two grown daughters, and her second novel, She Drove Without what it is they are seeing of Vietnam – and what or—to his great shock—the precarious joy of Stopping, brought her an Academy-Institute they miss entirely. Maggie, who is Vietnamese falling in love. Award from the American Institute of Arts and by birth but has lived most her life in the U.S., Letters. has returned to the country in search of clues Julia Glass is the author of Th ree Junes, to her dissident father’s disappearance during winner of the 2002 National Book Award for the war. Holding the story together is Old Fiction; Th e Whole World Over; and I See You Secret Daughter Everywhere. Her short fi ction has won several Man Hung, who has lived through decades of by Shilpi Somaya Gowda political upheaval and through it all has found prizes, and her personal essays have been widely a way to feed hope to the community of pond anthologized. She lives in Massachusetts with Nominated by: side dwellers among who he lives. her family. Halifax Public Libraries, Canada Somer’s life is everything she imagined it would Camilla Gibb was born in London, England be – she’s newly married and has started her and grew up in Toronto. Sweetness in the Belly Unfi nished Desires career as a physician in San Francisco – until was a national bestseller, a Scotiabank Giller by Gail Godwin she makes the devastating discovery she never Prize fi nalist, and winner of the Trillium Nominated by: will be able to have children. Award. Her novels have been translated into 14 Richmond Public Library, USA languages and published worldwide. Th e same year in India, a poor mother makes It is the fall of 1951 at Mount St. Gabriel’s, an the heartbreaking choice to save her newborn Chosen all-girls school tucked away in the mountains daughter’s life by giving her away. It is a of North Carolina. Tildy Stratton, the decision that will haunt Kavita for the rest of by Lesley Glaister undisputed queen bee of her class, befriends her life, and cause a ripple eff ect that travels Nominated by: Chloe Starnes, a new student recently orphaned across the world and back again. Sheffi eld Libraries, Archives & by the untimely and mysterious death of her Information Services, UK mother. Th eir friendship fi lls a void for both Asha, adopted out of a Mumbai orphanage, girls but also sets in motion a chain of events is the child that binds the destinies of these Th e last time Dodie sees her mother alive, that will profoundly aff ect the course of many two women. We follow both families, invisibly Stella is unusually busy, splendid in an old red lives, including those of the girl’s young teacher connected until Asha’s journey of self-discovery velvet dress. Soon after this, Dodie’s brother and of the school’s matriarch, Mother Suzanne leads her back to India. Seth goes missing: the only trace of him is Ravened. through postcards addressed from the Soul Life Shilpi Somaya Gowda was born and raised Centre, New York State. Fifty years on, the headmistress relives a pivotal in Toronto to parents who migrated there night, trying to reconcile past and present, from Mumbai. In 1991, she spent a summer When Stella hangs herself, Dodie must leave reaching back even further to her own senior as a volunteer in an Indian orphanage. She her baby Jake at home and cross the Atlantic to year at the school, where the roots of a tragedy lives with her husband and two children in bring Seth beck from the mysterious Soul Life are buried. California. Centre. But when she arrives, Seth is always one day away from seeing her. She becomes Gail Godwin is a three-time National Book drawn into the Brothers and Sisters’ communal Award fi nalist and the bestselling author of living, meditation, fasting and chanting. In a twelve critically acclaimed novels, including A parallel narrative, Stella’s sister Melanie tells Mother and Two Daughters, Violet Clay, Father the story of their teenage years in the 1970s. Melancholy’s Daughter, Evensong, Th e Good Th ese two compelling stories collide in a series Husband, and Evenings at Five. She lives in of shocking revelations and an exhilarating Woodstock, New York. conclusion. Heartfelt and frightening, Chosen is Lesley Glaister at the top of her game. Lord of Misrule Lesley Glaister was born in England. Her by Jaimy Gordon novels include Honour Th y Father, Trick or Nominated by: Treat, Limestone and Clay, Partial Eclipse Cape Breton Regional Library, Sydney, Canada and Nina Todd Has Gone. She lives with her husband between Sheffi eld and Orkney. She At the rock-bottom end of the sport of kings has three sons and teaches Creative Writing at sits the ruthless and often violent world of Sheffi eld Hallam University. cheap horse racing, where trainers and jockeys, grooms and hot walkers, loan sharks and touts are all struggling to take an edge, or prove their www.impacdublinaward.ie 13 Eligible Titles 2012

Th e Body in the Clouds and husbands. Th en comes the disappearance of Mary’s rebellious and beloved sister, Malinda. by Ashley Hay By the time Mary leaves for college, she has Nominated by: no one to write home to, and we follow along Th e State Library of Queensland, on her diffi cult search for purpose. From a Brisbane, Australia series of miserable jobs to her “reborn” mother’s deathbed, Mary fi nds hope in the most What if you looked up at just the right surprising places. With a rhythmically unique moment and saw – out of the corner of your voice and pitch-perfect wry humour, Christie eye – something unexpected? What if it was Hodgen spins an unconventional and moving something so marvellous, so extraordinary, that story about identity, belonging, and family. it transformed time and space forever? Christie Hodgen is the author of Hello, I Must Th e Body in the Clouds tells the story of one Be Going; and A Jeweler’s Eye for Flaw. She has extraordinary moment – a man falling from the won the AWP Award for Short Fiction and the sky, and surviving – and of three men who see Pushcart Prize. She teaches at the University of it. An astronomer in the late 1700s, a bridge Missouri–Kansas City, where she lives. worker in the 1930s, an expatriate banker returning home in the early 21st century: all three are transformed by one magical event. Mr. Chartwell All are searching for the same thing: how to by Rebecca Hunt understand what it means to call a place home, and how to be able to tell when you get there. Nominated by: To the End of the Land Liverpool Libraries & Information Services, UK Ashley Hay is the author of four books of non- by David Grossman fi ction. Th e Body in the Clouds is her fi rst novel In bed at home in Kent, Winston Churchill Translated from the original and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth is waking up. Th ere’s a visitor in the room, Hebrew by Jessica Cohen Writers Prize ‘Best First Book’ (South- someone he hasn’t seen for a while, a dark, Nominated by: East Asia and Pacifi c region) and the NSW mute bulk, watching him with tortured Münchner Stadtbibliothek, Germany Premier’s Literary Awards. concentration. It’s Mr Chartwell. Stadtbüchereien Düsseldorf, Germany In her terraced house in Battersea, Esther Leipziger Stadtische Bibliotheken, Germany Hammerhans, young, vulnerable and alone, Public Library of Cincinnati & Snakewoman of Little Egypt goes to answer the door to her new lodger. Hamilton County, USA by Robert Hellenga Th rough the glass she sees a vast silhouette the Free Library of Philadelphia, USA Nominated by: size of a mattress. It’s Mr Chartwell. Richmond Public Library, USA Hartford Public Library , USA Kansas City Public Library, USA He is charismatic and dangerously seductive, San José Public Library, USA On the morning of his fortieth birthday, and Esther and Winston Churchill are drawn Toronto Public Library, Canada anthropology professor Jackson Jones together by his dark infl uence. But can they Biblioteca Demonstrativa de Brasília, Brazil contemplates his future: Should he return to withstand Mr Chartwell’s strange, powerful Africa, where he did his fi eldwork, and live Ora, a middle-aged mother, is on the verge of charms and strong hold? Can they even explain with the Mbuti, or should he marry and settle celebrating her son Ofer’s release from Israeli to anyone who or what he is? Or why he has down in the Midwestern university town where army service when he returns to the front for a come to visit? he now teaches? On the morning of her release major off ensive. In a fi t of pre-emptive grief and from prison, Sunny, who grew up in a snake- For Mr Chartwell is a huge, black dog. magical thinking, she sets out for a hike in the handling church in the Little Egypt region Galilee, leaving no forwarding information for of Southern Illinois, rents a garage apartment Rebecca Hunt graduated from Central Saint the ‘notifi ers’ who might darken her door with from Jackson. Sunny and Jackson are drawn Martins College with a fi rst class honours the worst possible news. to each other, but then push comes to shove in degree in fi ne art. She lives and works in this page-turning novel brimming with wit, London. Mr Chartwell is her fi rst novel. She drags along an unlikely companion: a substance, emotional depth-a fascinating and former best friend and lover Avram, once original story that delivers Robert Hellenga at a brilliant artistic spirit. Now, as Ora and the top of his form. My Friend Jesus Christ Avram sleep out in the hills, ford rivers and cross valleys, avoiding all news from the front, by Lars Husum Robert Hellenga was educated at the she gives him the gift of Ofer, word by word; Translated from the original University of Michigan and Princeton a retelling that keeps Ofer very much alive Danish by Mette Petersen University. He is a professor at Knox College in for Ora, and opens Avram to human bonds Galesburg, Illinois, and the author of the novels Nominated by: undreamed of in his broken world. Th e Sixteen Pleasures, Th e Fall of a Sparrow, Copenhagen Central Library, Denmark Blues Lessons, Philosophy Made Simple, and Th e David Grossman was born in Jerusalem in When Nick is thirteen, he loses his parents in a Italian Lover. 1954 where he now lives with his family. His car crash. His sister is left to look after him. As books include Th e Yellow Wind, Sleeping on a he grows up Nick goes to extremes to retain his Wire: Conversations with Palestinians in Israel Elegies for the Broken Hearted sister’s attention, putting himself, his girlfriend and a novel Th e Smile of the Lamb. and others in harm’s way, striking up with a by Christie Hodgen gang and administering violence to order. Nominated by: Hartford Public Library , USA On the other side of tragedy, he returns to his fl at to fi nd an intruder on his sofa – a biker who Who are the people you’ll never forget? For proves immune to Nick’s menace. Th e biker Mary Murphy, there are fi ve. convinces Nick, fi rst, that he is Jesus Christ, and, second, that he must now take charge of In fi ve quirky elegies to lost friends and Nick’s life. Nick is moved to return to his home relatives, Mary tells us the story of her life. village, where he sets about reconstructing We begin with a restless childhood spent himself and doing penance for his failures. He following her mother between multiple homes

14 www.impacdublinaward.ie Eligible Titles 2012 even fi nds love anew. But has he really learned and following on from this are revealed. A have won numerous literary awards. We, the anything from his sister or from his miraculous modern and far-reaching Shetlandic saga with Drowned has sold more than 300,000 copies in new mentor...? ethnology, history, linguistics entwined with Scandinavia alone and was voted best Danish humour, a mystery, and a love story. novel of the past twenty-fi ve years. Born in West Jutland, Denmark in 1974, Lars Husum has written for the screen and directed Robert Alan Jamieson was born in 1958 fi lms. My Friend Jesus Christ is his fi rst book. on Shetland. His work appears in many Hand Me Down World anthologies, he has published two poetry by Lloyd Jones collections and three novels. In 2005 A Day Nominated by: Daisy Chains at the Offi ce was featured in Th e List’s ‘100 Wellington City Libraries, New Zealand by Kevin Ireland Best Scottish Books of All Time’. He is Dunedin Public Libraries, New Zealand currently teaching a Creative Writing course at Nominated by: Edinburgh University. Auckland Libraries, New Zealand A woman washes ashore in Sicily. She has come from North Africa to fi nd her son, taken from David Asquith is a bumptious, preposterous her when he was just days old by his father and rogue, yet as the rest of the world slides into World and Town stolen away to Berlin. With nothing but her fi nancial ruin he plans a radiant pathway to by Gish Jen maid’s uniform and a knife stashed in a plastic personal success and universal happiness. Th e Nominated by: bag, she relies on strangers— some generous, catalyst for his miraculous transformation is Boston Public Library, USA some exploiting—to guide her passage north. a chance meeting with a young woman called Daisy, beginning a chain of unlikely events that Hattie Kong, a retired teacher and a descendant Th ese strangers tell of their encounters with a sees him quickly develop from pathetic failure of Confucius, has decided that it’s time to start quiet, mysterious woman in a blue coat—each to, in his eyes, a highly successful and brilliant over. She moves to the peaceful New England account a diff erent view of the truth, a diff erent entrepreneur and self-styled public benefactor. town of Riverlake, a place that once represented truth. And slowly these fragments of a life piece the rock-solid base of American life. Instead of together to create a spellbinding story of the Kevin Ireland lives on Auckland’s North quietude, Hattie discovers a town challenged courage of a mother and the versions of truth Shore and is one of New Zealand’s best-known by cell-phone towers, chain stores, and we create to accommodate our lives. writers. His many other publications include struggling farms. Soon Hattie is joined by prize-winning memoirs and eighteen books an immigrant Cambodian family on the run, Lloyd Jones was born in 1955 in New Zealand. of poems. He was the second recipient of the and—quite unexpectedly—Carter Hatch, a He studied at Victoria University, and has Prime Minister’s Award for poetry. Daisy love from her past. As each character seeks to worked as a journalist and consultant as well as Chains is his sixth novel. make a new start on life, World and Town asks a writer. His recent novels are Here at the End deep, absorbing questions about religion, love, of the World We Learn to Dance; Paint Your Wife and Mister Pip. Th e Finkler Question home, and meaning. by Howard Jacobson Gish Jen is the author of three previous novels and a book of stories. Her honours include the Nominated by: Lannan Literary Award for fi ction and the Městská knihovna v Praze, Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award Prague, Czech Republic from the American Academy of Arts and Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular Letters. She lives with her husband and two former BBC radio producer, and Sam Finkler, children in Cambridge, Massachusetts. a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Despite very diff erent lives, they’ve never quite We, the Drowned lost touch with each other – or with their by Carsten Jensen former teacher, Libor Sevcik. Both Libor and Translated from the original Danish by Finkler are recently widowed, and together Charlotte Barslund with Emma Ryder with Treslove they share a sweetly painful Nominated by: evening revisiting a time before they had loved Wojewódzka i Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna and lost. It is that very evening, when Treslove im Marszalka J.Pilsudskiego, Lódz, Poland hesitates a moment as he walks home, that he is Copenhagen Central Library, Denmark attacked – and his whole sense of who and what he is slowly and ineluctably changes. In 1848 a motley crew of Danish sailors sets sail from the small island town of Marstal to fi ght An award-winning writer and broadcaster, the Germans. Not all of them return – and Howard Jacobson was born in Manchester. those who do will never be the same. Among He lectured for three years at the University them is the daredevil Laurids Madsen, who Serious Men of Sydney before returning to teach at Selwyn promptly escapes again into the anonymity of College, Cambridge. His novels include Th e by Manu Joseph the high seas. Mighty Walzer, Kalooki Nights and the highly Nominated by: acclaimed Th e Act of Love. He lives in London. As soon as he is old enough, his son Albert sets India International Centre Library, New Delhi off in search of his missing father on a voyage Ayyan Mani will not be constrained by Indian that will take him to the furthest reaches of traditions. Despite working at the Institute of Da Happie Laand the globe and into the clutches of the most Th eory and Research in Mumbai as the lowly by Robert Alan Jamieson nefarious company. Bearing a mysterious personal assistant to a brilliant but insuff erable shrunken head, and plagued by premonitions Nominated by: astronomer, he dreams of more for himself and of bloodshed, he returns to a town increasingly Aberdeen Library & Information his family. Services, Scotland run by women – among them a widow intent on liberating all men from the tyranny of the sea. He weaves two plots: the fi rst to cheer up his A Perth minister opens his door to a weary, soap-opera-addicted wife by creating traumatised stranger who calls himself Carsten Jensen was born in 1952. He fi rst outrageous fi ctions around their ten-year- ‘the son and heir to being lost’. When the made his name as a columnist and literary old son; the other to sabotage the married stranger disappears, the events leading up to critic. His essays, novels and travel books director by using his boss’s seeming romance www.impacdublinaward.ie 15 Eligible Titles 2012 with the institute’s fi rst female researcher. As Russian Winter Swell the institute’s Brahmins wage a vicious war by Daphne Kalotay by Ioanna Karystiani over theories about alien life, Ayyan sees his deceptions intertwining and setting in motion Nominated by: Translated from the original Greek a series of extraordinary events he cannot stop. Richmond Public Library, USA by Konstantine Matsoukas Serious Men is at once a hilarious portrayal Nominated by: When Nina Revskaya puts her remarkable of runaway egos and ambitions and a moving Veria Central Public Library, Greece jewellery collection up for auction, the former portrait of love and its strange workings. Serres Central Public Library, Greece Bolshoi Ballet star fi nds herself overwhelmed Manu Joseph is the deputy editor of the new by memories of her homeland, and of the events Th e moment of reckoning has come for Captain Indian magazine Open. Th e former features that changed her life half a century earlier. It Mitsos Avgustìs. After twelve years at sea editor of Th e Times of India, he was voted was in Russia that she discovered the magic of it is time to go home to the island on which “India’s Most Stylish Writer”, and short-listed dance and fell in love, and where, faced with he was born: home to his wife Flora, his two for Society Magazine’s Young Achiever Award. Stalinist aggression, a terrible discovery incited daughters, his son, a granddaughter he has a deadly act of betrayal—and an ingenious never met, and Litsa, his lover from all those escape to the West. years ago. It will take all Avgustìs’s courage and strength to face the squalls and storms on land Nina has kept her secrets for half a lifetime. But after a lifetime at sea—and all the while, he now Drew Brooks, an inquisitive associate at must resist the ocean’s siren song bidding him a Boston auction house, and Grigori Solodin, return, tempting him back to the cargo vessel, a professor who believes Nina’s jewels hold the the Athos III, that he so reluctantly left. key to unlocking his past, begin to unravel her story—setting in motion a series of revelations Statuesque like Poseidon, gruff yet tender, a that will have life-altering consequences for true legend of the seven seas, Avgustìs will them all. learn that no matter how many or how varied one’s experiences of life have been, there is Daphne Kalotay is the author of the acclaimed always something new to learn. fi ction collection Calamity and Other Stories. She earned a master’s in creative writing and Ioanna Karystiani was born on the island a PhD in literature from Boston University. of Crete. Her literary debut came with the She has taught creative writing at Boston collection of short stories, I kyria Kataki (Ms. University, Middlebury College, and Skidmore Kataki). She has since written three novels, College, and lives in the Boston area. all of which have been translated into several languages. She has received the Greek state Th e Convent prize for literature. by Panos Karnezis Nominated by: Under Heaven Th e Eight Day Veria Central Public Library, Greece by Guy Gavriel Kay by Mitsuyo Kakuta Nominated by: Th ose whom God wishes to destroy he fi rst Translated from the original Japanese Winnipeg Public Library, Canada makes mad... by Margaret Mitsutani Inspired by the glory of Tang Dynasty China Nominated by: Th e convent of Our Lady of Mercy stands alone in the eighth century, Guy Gavriel Kay melds Osaka Municipal Library, Japan in an uninhabited part of the Spanish sierra. history and the fantastic into something both Its inhabitants are devoted to God, to solitude powerful and emotionally compelling. Th e year is 1985. Kiwako is an ordinary offi ce and silence; six women cut off from the world worker, in love with a married man, until an they’ve chosen to leave behind. unwanted abortion causes her to snap. She Shen Tai is the son of a general who led the forces of imperial Kitai in that empire’s last kidnaps her lover’s six-month-old baby and Everything changes on the day that Mother war against their western enemies from Tagur, runs away with her, eventually taking refuge Superior Maria Ines discovers a suitcase twenty years before. Forty thousand men on in an all-female religious commune. Here, she punctured with air-holes at the entrance to both sides were slain beside a remote mountain attempts to raise the girl. Fifteen years later, the retreat. Soon she is to fi nd the box and lake. General Shen Gao himself has died the child, Elena, is an adult contending with its contents are to have consequences beyond recently. To honour his father’s memory, Tai the diffi culties of returning to her “natural her imagining, and that even in her carefully has spent two years of offi cial mourning alone family,” made up of a mother who doesn’t come protected sanctuary she is unable to keep the at the battle site among the ghosts of the dead, home, an alcoholic father, and siblings with world, or her past, at bay. whom she can’t connect. laying to rest their unburied bones. Panos Karnezis was born in Greece in Now Tai starts east towards the glittering, Mitsuyo Kakuta’s powerful second novel in 1967. He came to England in 1992 to study dangerous imperial capital and gathers his wits English is a sympathetic portrait of two women engineering, and worked in industry before for a return from solitude by a mountain lake to brought together by tragedy, each struggling to starting to write. He was awarded an MA in his own forever-altered life. determine her own destiny. Creative Writing by the University of East Anglia. His fi rst book, Little Infamies, was Guy Gavriel Kay is an internationally Mitsuyo Kakuta has written more than 40 published in 2002. He lives in London. books (novels, short stories and essays) and is bestselling author. He has been awarded the considered one of Japan’s most popular authors. International Goliardos Prize for his work in She has won seven major literary awards. Her the literature of the fantastic, is a two-time short stories have appeared in English in the winner of the Aurora Award, and won the 2008 Asia Literary Review and Japanese Literature World Fantasy Award for Ysabel. His works Today. have been translated into 25 languages.

16 www.impacdublinaward.ie Eligible Titles 2012

Fame Great House A Watermelon, a Fish and a by Daniel Kehlmann by Nicole Krauss Bible Translated from the original German Nominated by: by Christy Lefteri by Carol Brown Janeway Hoofdstedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek, Nominated by: Nominated by: Brussels, Belgium Cyprus Library, Nicosia Zentral-und Landesbibliothek Berlin, Germany Cleveland Public Library, USA Stadtbibliothek Bremen, Germany New Hampshire State Library, Concord, USA It is July 1974; the Turkish army has invaded Stadtbüchereien Düsseldorf, Germany the town of Kyrenia in Cyprus. Everyone has For twenty-fi ve years, a reclusive American Leipziger Stadtische Bibliotheken, Germany always talked about Koki. Th ey never believed novelist has been writing at the desk she Bibliotheken der Stadt Mainz, Germany she was her father’s daughter and when she inherited from a young Chilean poet who became pregnant, her fate was sealed. So she Imagine being famous. Adored by people who disappeared at the hands of Pinochet’s secret lives outside the town and hides from her have never even met you, known the world over, police. One day a girl claiming to be the neighbours’ eyes. But, held captive with the wouldn’t that be great? But what if, one day, poet’s daughter arrives to take it away. Across very women who have made her life so lonely, you got stuck in a country where no one spoke the ocean, a man caring for his dying wife Koki fi nally tells them the truth. Meanwhile, your language and you didn’t speak theirs. discovers, among her papers, a lock of hair Adem Berker fi nds himself back in Kyrenia, his How would your fame help you then? What that unravels a terrible secret. In Jerusalem, an former home, now as a member of the invading would happen if someone got hold of your antiques dealer slowly reassembles his father’s force. Here he left everything he ever wanted mobile phone? If they spoke to your girlfriends, study, plundered by the Nazis in Budapest in and, by cover of darkness, risking his life, he your agent, your director and started making 1944. searches every house, every cafe, and every old decisions for you? What if you realised your pathway, for just a glimpse of the only woman Connecting these stories is a desk of many magnum opus was drivel, a total waste of time he has ever loved. drawers that exerts a power over those who and energy for all concerned, how would you possess it. As the narrators of Great House make react? In this delightfully entertaining joy of a Christy Lefteri was born in London in 1980 to their confessions, the desk takes on more and book, Daniel Kehlmann throws his characters Greek Cypriot parents who moved to London more meaning, and comes fi nally to stand for into all these situations with thrilling, funny in 1974 during the Turkish invasion. She all that has been taken from them, and all that and surprising results, showing once again that completed a degree in English and a Masters binds them to what has disappeared. he is one of his generation’s fi nest European in creative writing, and became a secondary school teacher, before leaving to pursue a PhD writers. Nicole Krauss is the author of Man Walks into and to write. a Room, and the international bestseller Th e Daniel Kehlmann was born in Munich in 1975 History of Love. Her books have been translated and moved to Vienna in 1981, where he studied into more than 35 languages. She lives in philosophy and literature at university. Fame is Th e Long Song Brooklyn, New York. his sixth novel. by Andrea Levy Nominated by: Under the Poppy Th e Surrendered Hoofdstedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek, by Chang-rae Lee Brussels, Belgium by Kathe Koja Liverpool Libraries & Information Services, UK Nominated by: Nominated by: Jamaica Library Service, Kingston Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Jacksonville Public Library, USA Th e State Library of South Australia, Adelaide Emanuele III, Naples, Italy Under the Poppy is a brothel owned by Decca National Library Service of You do not know me yet. My son Th omas, who and Rupert. Decca is in love with Rupert but Barbados, Bridgetown is publishing this book, tells me, it is customary he in turn is in love with her brother, Istvan. Milwaukee Public Library, USA at this place in a novel to give the reader a When Istvan comes to town, louche puppet New York Public Library, USA little taste of the story that is held within these troupe in tow, the lines of their age-old desires pages. As your storyteller, I am to convey June Han was only a girl when the Korean intersect against a backdrop of approaching that this tale is set in Jamaica during the last War left her orphaned; Hector Brennan was war. Hearts are broken when old betrayals and turbulent years of slavery and the early years of a young GI who fl ed the petty tragedies of new alliances—not just their own—take shape. freedom that followed. his small town to serve his country. When With the war getting too close, Istvan and the war ended, their lives collided at a Korean Rupert abandon the Poppy and fi nd a place in July is a slave girl who lives upon a sugar orphanage where they vied for the attentions of high society where they try to avoid becoming plantation named Amity and it is her life that Sylvie Tanner, the beautiful yet deeply damaged more than puppets themselves. Under the Poppy is the subject of this tale. She was there when missionary wife whose elusive love seemed to is a vivid, sexy historical novel as delicious and the Baptist War raged in 1831, and she was transform everything. Th irty years later and on intoxicating as the best guilty pleasure. also present when slavery was declared no the other side of the world, June and Hector are more. My son says I must convey how the story Kathe Koja’s books include Th e Cipher, Skins reunited in a plot that will force them to come tells also of July’s mama Kitty, of the Negroes and Extremitie, her young adult novels include to terms with the mysterious secrets of their that worked the plantation land, of Caroline Budda Boy, Talk, Kissing the Bee, and Headlong. past, and the shocking acts of love and violence Mortimer the white woman who owned the Her books have been published in 7 languages. that bind them together. plantation and many more persons besides. She’s a Detroit native and lives in the area with Chang-rae Lee has delivered a mesmeriz- her husband, artist Rick Lieder, and their cats. Andrea Levy was born in England to Jamaican ing novel, elegantly suspenseful and deeply parents. She has written four previous novels, aff ecting. Every Light in the House Burnin’, Never Far From Nowhere, Fruit of the Lemon and Small Chang-rae Lee is the author of Native Speaker, Island (winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, winner of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN which has now been adapted into a major BBC Award for fi rst fi ction, A Gesture Life, and TV drama. Aloft. Selected by Th e New Yorker as one of the twenty best writers under forty, Chang-rae Lee teaches writing at Princeton University.

www.impacdublinaward.ie 17 Eligible Titles 2012

Lost loss and alcohol, he realizes that someone – or when the company fi nds itself surrounded and something – is trying to communicate with outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, by Alice Lichtenstein him. Soon enough, his return sets in motion the Marines are thrust into the raw and all- Nominated by: a series of horrifying events which exposes a consuming terror of combat. Th e experience Regional Library of Karviná, Karviná- mysterious and troubling relationship between will change them forever. Mizerov, Czech Republic the inhabitants of the remote island and the sea. Karl Marlantes served as a Marine in Vietnam, On a cold January morning, Susan leaves her John Ajvide Lindqvist is a Swedish author. where he was awarded the Navy Cross, the husband alone for a few minutes and returns He has written TV series as well as stage plays Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals to fi nd him gone. Suff ering from dementia, and TV drama. Two of his other novels, Let for valour, two Purple Hearts, and ten air Christopher has wandered alone into a frigid the Right One In and Handling the Undead have medals. Matterhorn is his fi rst novel. He lives landscape. Lost. been translated into English and published by in rural Washington State. Quercus. As a massive search for Christopher takes place, Susan’s life intersects with those of two Beatrice & Virgil strangers: Jeff , her liaison with the police, a Train to Budapest by Yann Martel search-and-rescue expert shaken by his young by Dacia Maraini wife’s betrayal, and Corey, a twelve-year-old Nominated by: boy, rendered mute by a family tragedy. While Translated from the original Italian Wojewódzka i Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna the temperature drops and teams scour the by Sylvester Mazzarella im Marszalka J.Pilsudskiego, Lódz, Poland countryside with greater and greater urgency, Nominated by: Oslo Public Libraries, Norway Susan and Jeff venture into the fraught territory Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Fate takes many forms. of their pasts. Corey, too, is troubled by Firenze, Florence, Italy memories, and a secret that could aff ect them When Henry receives a letter from an elderly 1956: Amara, a young Italian journalist, is all. When the desperate search concludes, taxidermist, it poses a puzzle that he cannot sent to report on the growing political divide what it uncovers will transform Susan, Jeff , and resist. As he is pulled further into the world between East and West in post-war central Corey and irrevocably bind them together. of this strange and calculating man, Henry Europe. She also has a more personal mission: becomes increasingly involved with the lives Alice Lichtenstein graduated from Brown to fi nd out what happened to Emanuele, her of a donkey and a howler monkey – named University and was named the Boston soul mate from before the war when both Beatrice and Virgil – and the epic journey they University Fellow in Creative Writing. She has were children in Florence. Emanuele and his undertake together. received a New York Foundation for the Arts family were Jews transported by the Nazis Grant in Fiction and has twice been a fellow from wartime Vienna, but not before he had With all the spirit and originality that made at the MacDowell Colony. She teaches at sent Amara a long series of letters she still Life of Pi so treasured, this brilliant new novel Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. carries with her. Her quest now takes her on takes the reader on a haunting odyssey. On the long train journeys. She visits the holocaust way Martel asks profound questions about life museum at Auschwitz, and Budapest, where and art, truth and deception, responsibility and she is caught up in the tumultuous events of the complicity. October rising against the Soviet Union. She is helped by chance travel companions, and other Yann Martel is the award-winning author of survivors she meets along the way. four books, the most recent of which is What Is Stephen Harper Reading? Life of Pi was the Novelist, poet and playwright, Dacia Maraini winner of the Hugh MacLennan Prize for has been awarded Italy’s top two literary prizes, Fiction as well as the Man Booker Prize. Yann the Premio Strega and the Premio Campiello. lives with writer Alice Kuipers and their son, Her fi ction, which has been published in 22 Th eo, in Saskatoon. countries, includes Woman at War, Isolina, Voices and the worldwide best-seller Th e Silent Duchess. She lives in Rome. Dog-Heart by Diana McCaulay Matterhorn Nominated by: by Karl Marlantes Jamaica Library Service, Kingston Nominated by: Dog-Heart is a novel about the well-meaning Regional Library of Karviná, attempt of a middle-class single mother to Karviná-Mizerov, Hungary transform the life of a boy from the ghetto who Bibliotheek Rotterdam, Th e Netherlands she meets on the street. Set in present-day, Cork City Libraries, Ireland urban Jamaica, Dog-Heart tells the story from Harbour Houston Public Library, USA two alternating points of view – those of the Laramie County Library System, Cheyenne, USA woman and the boy. Th ey speak in the two by John Ajvide Lindqvist Lincoln Library, Springfi eld, USA languages of Jamaica that sometimes overlap, Translated from the original Seattle Public Library, USA sometimes display their diff erent origins and Swedish by Marlaine Delargy world views. Whilst engaging the reader in a Nominated by: An epic war novel, Matterhorn is the timeless tense and absorbing narrative, the novel deals Stockholm Public Library, Sweden story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino seriously with issues of race and class, the Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, complexity of relationships between people of On a beautiful winter’s day Anders, his wife who are dropped into the mountain jungle very diff erent backgrounds, and the diffi culties and their feisty six-year-old, Maja, set out of Vietnam as boys and forced to fi ght their faced by individuals seeking to bring about across the ice of the Swedish archipelago to way into manhood. Standing in their way are social change by their own actions. visit the lighthouse on Gavasten. Th ere was not merely the North Vietnamese but also no one around, so they let her go on ahead. monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, Diana McCaulay is a Jamaican writer, Maja disappeared, seemingly into thin air, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, newspaper columnist and environmental and was never found. Two years later, Anders, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover activist. Dog-Heart won fi rst prize in the 2008 a broken alcoholic, his life ruined, returns to between each other: racial tension, competing Jamaican National Literature awards. the archipelago. Th rough the haze of memory, ambitions, and duplicitous superior offi cers. But

18 www.impacdublinaward.ie Eligible Titles 2012

Th e Dervish House a chorus keeping vigil as the hours pass, paying their own particular homage as their friend’s by Ian McDonald body is taken away. Nominated by: Birmingham Libraries, UK All of their stories are laid out piece by broken piece through a series of fractured narratives. Th e Dervish House centres on Istanbul in 2025. Stories of lives fallen through the cracks, hopes Turkey is part of Europe but sited on the edge, fl aring and dying, love overwhelmed by a an Islamic country that looks to the West. Th e stronger need, and the havoc wrought by drugs, Dervish House is the story of the families that distress, and the disregard of the wider world. live in and around its titular house; it is at once a rich mosaic of Islamic life in the new century Even the Dogs is an intimate exploration of life and a telling novel of future possibilities. at the edges of society; littered with love, loss, despair, and a half-glimpse of redemption. Th e new SF epic from Ian McDonald does for Turkey what Brasyl did for Brazil. Ian Jon McGregor is the author of the critically McDonald has found renown at the cutting acclaimed If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable edge of a movement to take SF away from its Th ings and So Many Ways to Begin. He is British and American white roots and out into the winner of the Betty Trask Prize and the the rich cultures of the world. Somerset Maugham Award, and has been twice longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Ian McDonald was born in Manchester in 1960. He now lives in Belfast and works in TV production. Th e author of many previous Solar Kraken novels, including the groundbreaking Chaga by Ian McEwan by China Miéville books set in Africa. River of Gods won the BSFA award in 2005. Nominated by: Nominated by: Stadtbücherei Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany Bibliothèque Municipale de Mulhouse, France Bibliotheken der Stadt Mainz, Germany Stockholm Public Library, Sweden When Colts Ran Bibliothèques Municipales Geneva, Switzerland Halifax Public Libraries, Canada In the Darwin Centre at London’s Natural by Roger McDonald History Museum, Billy Harrow, a cephalopod Nominated by: Michael Beard is a Nobel prize-winning specialist, is conducting a tour whose climax Th e State Library of New South physicist whose best work is behind him. is meant to be the Centre’s prize specimen Wales, Sydney, Australia Trading on his reputation, he speaks for of a rare Architeuthis dux – better known Th e National Library of Australia, Canberra enormous fees, lends his name to the as the Giant Squid. But Billy’s tour takes an letterheads of renowned scientifi c institutions unexpected turn when the squid suddenly and In this sweeping epic of friendship, toil, hope and half-heartedly heads a government- impossibly vanishes into thin air. and failed promise, multi-award-winning backed initiative tackling global warming. author Roger McDonald follows the story of A compulsive womaniser, Beard fi nds his As Billy soon discovers, this is the precipitating Kingsley Colts as he chases the ghost of himself fi fth marriage fl oundering. But this time it is act in a struggle to the death between through the decades, and in and out of the lives diff erent: she is having the aff air, and he is still mysterious but powerful forces in a London and aff ections of the citizens of ‘Th e Isabel’, a in love with her. whose existence he has been blissfully ignorant slice of Australia scattered with prospectors, of until now, a city whose denizens – human artists, no-hopers and visionaries. Against this When Beard’s professional and personal worlds and otherwise – are adept in magic and murder. spacious backdrop of sheep stations, timeless collide in a freak accident, an opportunity landscapes and the Five Alls pub, men play out presents itself for Beard to extricate himself China Miéville is the author of King Rat and their fates, conduct their rivalries and hope for from his marital mess, reinvigorate his career Perdido Street Station, winner of the Arthur C. the best. and save the world from environmental disaster. Clarke Award and the British Fantasy Award among others. He lives and works in London. When Colts Ran is in turns humorous and Solar is a serious and darkly satirical novel, hard-bitten, it charts the ebb and fl ow of showing human frailty struggling with the human fortune, and our fraught desire to leave most pressing and complex problem of our Th e Last Warner Woman an indelible mark on society and those closest time. by Kei Miller to us. Nominated by: Ian McEwan is the author of two collections Jamaica Library Service, Kingston Roger McDonald was born at Young, New of stories and ten previous novels, including South Wales. His novels include 1915, Enduring Love, Amsterdam, for which he won Once upon a time in Jamaica a young woman Slipstream, Rough Wallaby, Water Man and Th e the Booker Prize in 1998, Atonement and went somewhere that no one had visited for Slap. Th e Ballad of Desmond Kale won the 2006 Saturday. years. It may have been nestled in a valley Miles Franklin Award. between the Stone Hill Mountains of St Catherine, four rocking chairs on a veranda Even the Dogs surveying a garden full of bougainvillea and by Jon McGregor vegetables. Or perhaps it was merely a pastel- Nominated by: coloured house on an ordinary street in Spanish M.I. Rudomino State Library for Foreign Town. Literature, Moscow, Russia One thing everyone agrees on: this is the place On a cold, quiet day between Christmas and that Adamine Bustamante was born. the New Year, a man’s body is found in an abandoned apartment. His friends look on, but When Adamine grows up she discovers she has they’re dead, too. Th eir bodies found in squats the gift of ‘warning’: the power to both protect and sheds and alleyways across the city. Victims and terrify. But no one tells her that in England of a bad batch of heroin, they’re in the shadows, her prophecies of hurricanes and earthquakes will meet with a diff erent kind of fear. Now www.impacdublinaward.ie 19 Eligible Titles 2012

Adamine wants to tell her story. But she must Miyuki Miyabe’s fi rst novel was published in wrestle for the truth with ‘Mr Writer Man’, for 1987, and since that time she has become one of he is taking her words and twisting them. Japan’s most popular and best-selling authors. Brave Story won Th e Batchelder Award for Kei Miller was born in Jamaica in 1978. best children’s book in translation from the He currently teaches creative writing at the American Library Association. Th e Book of University of Glasgow. His collection of short Heroes is her sixth novel to be translated into stories Th e Fear of Stones was shortlisted for the English. Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. Th e Extinction Club Th e Th ousand Autumns of by Jeff rey Moore Nominated by: Jacob de Zoet Winnipeg Public Library, Canada by David Mitchell On the last stroke of November, as Nile Nominated by: Nightingale examines a church with a faded University Library of Bern, Switzerland for-sale sign, he is startled by a gun-racked Tweebronnen Openbare Bibliotheek, pickup barrelling down the country lane. Leuven, Belgium With a sack roped to the roof, it veers past the Stedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek Gent, Belgium church and comes to a spinning stop beside Městská knihovna v Praze, the cemetery. Silence, then a thud. With that Prague, Czech Republic sound ends the peace Nile expected to fi nd Tampere City Library, Finland Skippy Dies when he fl ed the addictions, exhaustions, and Bibliothèque Municipale de Strasbourg, France by Paul Murray legal problems of home by heading north, Houston Public Library, USA illegally, into Quebec’s Laurentian Mountains. Nominated by: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, USA Inside the burlap sack is the bloodied body of a Cork City Libraries, Ireland Multnomah County Library, Portland, USA still breathing teenage girl. Against his better Dublin City Public Libraries, Ireland Richland County Public Library, Columbia, USA judgment, Nile resolves to treat her wounds and Limerick City Library, Ireland San Diego Public Library, USA fi nd those who left her for dead. Waterford County Library, Ireland New Hampshire State Library, USA New Hampshire State Library, Concord, USA Auckland Libraries and Jeff rey Moore studied applied linguistics and Seattle Public Library, USA Information, New Zealand languages in North America and Europe. He ‘Skippy and Ruprecht are having a doughnut- Be transported to a place like no other: a tiny, works as a translator and lecturer in Montreal and Val Morin, Quebec. His novels have won eating race one evening when Skippy turns man-made island in the bay of Nagasaki, for purple and falls off his chair . . .’ two hundred years the sole gateway between several awards and have been published in 20 countries. Japan and the West. Here, in the dying days of And so begins Skippy Dies – an epic, tragic, the 18th-century, a young Dutch clerk arrives to comic, brilliant novel set in and around make his fortune. Instead he loses his heart. Th e Last Weekend Dublin’s Seabrook College for Boys. Principally concerning the lives, loves, mistakes and Step onto the streets of Dejima and mingle by Blake Morrison triumphs of overweight maths-whiz Ruprecht with scheming traders, spies, interpreters, Nominated by: Van Doren and his roommate Daniel ‘Skippy’ servants and concubines as two cultures Oslo Public Libraries, Norway Juster, it features a frisbee-throwing siren called converge. In a tale of integrity and corruption, Lori, the joys (and horrors) of fi rst love, the Set over a long weekend in East Anglia, Blake passion and power, the key is control – of riches use and blatant misuse of prescription drugs, Morrison’s new novel is the chilling story of and minds, and over death itself. Carl (the offi cial school psychopath), various a rivalrous friendship – as told with deceptive attempts to unravel string theory . . . while David Mitchell’s novels include Ghostwritten, casualness by the narrator, Ian. It opens with at the same time exploring the very deepest Number9dream, Cloud Atlas and Black Swan a surprise phone call from an old university mysteries of the human heart. Green, which was shortlisted for the Costa friend, inviting Ian and his wife, Em, for a Novel Award and longlisted for the Man few days by the sea. Th eir hosts, Ollie and Paul Murray was born in 1975. He studied Booker. He grew up in Worcestershire and Daisy, are a golden couple, and the scene is set English literature at Trinity College in Dublin. spent some years living in Japan. for sunlit relaxation. But dangerous tensions Paul was a former bookseller and his fi rst novel, quickly emerge. An Evening of Long Goodbyes, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize in 2003 and was Th e Book of Heroes Th e Last Weekend is a deftly crafted page- nominated for the Kerry Irish Fiction Award. by Miyuki Miyabe turner, where little can be taken for granted and nothing is quite as it seems. It off ers a dark, Translated from the original Japanese haunting tale of friendship, sexual passion by Alexander O. Smith Th e Gendarme and jealousy – and confi rms Blake Morrison’s by Mark T. Mustian Nominated by: reputation as one of Britain’s most talented Osaka Municipal Library, Japan writers. Nominated by: Multnomah County Library, Portland, USA When her brother Hiroki disappears after a Born in Yorkshire, Blake Morrison is the violent altercation with bullies, Yuriko fi nds author of two bestselling memoirs, and When A haunting, deeply moving novel – an old man a magical book in his room. She learns that Did You Last See Your Father? And Th ings My comes face-to-face with his past and sets out to Hiroki has been possessed by Th e Book of Mother Never Told Me, and two novels South fi nd the love of his life and beg her forgiveness. Heroes, and that only she can save him. With of the River and Th e Last Weekend. He lives in the help of the monk Sky, the dictionary- To those around him, Emmet Conn is a south London. mouse Aju, and the mysterious Man of Ash, ninety-two-year-old man on the verge of Yuriko has to solve the mystery of her vanished senility. But what becomes frighteningly brother and save the world from the evil King clear to Emmet is that the sudden, realistic in Yellow. dreams he is having are memories of events he, and many others, have denied or purposely forgotten. Th e Gendarme is a unique love story

20 www.impacdublinaward.ie Eligible Titles 2012 that explores the power of memory – and the 21 Immortals architecture; and the unmarked passing of ability of people, individually and collectively, those who die alone in the city. Frank struggles by Rozlan Mohd Noor to forget. Depicting how love can transcend to make sense of these absences while having nationalities and politics, how racism creates Nominated by: to report endless local news stories of holes divisions where none truly exist, and how the National Library of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpar opening up in people’s gardens and trying to human spirit fi ghts to survive even in the face cope with his resolutely miserable mother. 21 Immortals: Inspector Mislan and the Yee of hopelessness, this is a transcendent novel. Sang Murders is an explosive debut from the Th e result is that rare thing: a page-turning Mark T. Mustian is an author, attorney, and quietly talented Rozlan Mohd Noor, an ex- novel which asks the big questions in an city commissioner. He lives with his wife and police offi cer, which explains why he knows so accessible way, and is laugh-out-loud funny, three children in Tallahassee, Florida. much about police work and inside stories. Th is genuinely moving and ultimately uplifting. is a true Malaysian high-tech crime thriller with good cops, bad cops (and badder cops) and Catherine O’Flynn’s debut novel, What Was Th e Snowman triad members, with insights into the workings Lost, won the Costa First Novel Award, was of the local CSI, and forays into the world of by Jo Nesbø shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, hackers and their viruses, sleeper programs, and was longlisted for the Booker Prize and the Translated from the original trojans, ulat, spybots, hound dogs and their link Orange Prize. She lives in Birmingham with Norwegian by Don Bartlett to crime, including murder. her husband and daughter. Nominated by: Gateshead Library, UK Rozlan Mohd Noor was an offi cer with the Royal Malaysian Police for 11 years. Even Who Fears Death Th e night the fi rst snow falls a young boy wakes after leaving the force, the evolution of crime by Nnedi Okorafor to fi nd his mother gone. He walks through scene investigation (CSI) and the introduction the silent house, but fi nds only wet footprints of technology continued to fascinate him. He Nominated by: on the stairs. In the garden looms a solitary wrote crime stories to entertain friends, which National Library & Information System fi gure: a snowman bathed in cold moonlight, its led to working on his novels. Authority, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago black eyes glaring up at the bedroom windows. International award-winning author Nnedi Round its neck is his mother’s pink scarf. Th e Hand that First Held Okorafor enters the world of magical realist literature with a powerful story of genocide in Inspector Harry Hole is convinced there is a Mine link between the disappearance and a menacing the far future and of the woman who reshapes letter he received some months earlier. When by Maggie O’Farrell her world. a second woman disappears Harry’s suspicions Nominated by: In a post-apocalyptic Africa, the world has are confi rmed: he is a pawn in a deadly game. A Tweebronnen Openbare Bibliotheek, changed in many ways, yet in one region brilliant thriller with a pace that never lets up, Leuven, Belgium genocide between tribes still bloodies the land. Th e Snowman confi rms Jo Nesbø’s position as London’s Public Libraries, UK After years of enslaving the Okeke people, the an international star of crime fi ction. Dunedin Public Libraries, New Zealand Nuru tribe has decided to follow the Great Jo Nesbø is a musician, songwriter, economist When the sophisticated Innes Kent turns up Book and exterminate the Okeke tribe for and bestselling author. His fi rst crime novel on her doorstep, Lexie Sinclair realises she good. An Okeke woman who has survived the featuring Harry Hole was published in Norway cannot wait any longer for her life to begin, and annihilation of her village and a terrible rape in 1997 and was an instant hit, winning the leaves for London. Th ere, at the heart of the by an enemy general wanders into the desert Glass Key Award for best Nordic crime novel. 1950s Soho art scene, she carves out a new life. hoping to die. Instead, she gives birth to an In the present day, Elina and Ted are reeling angry baby girl with hair and skin the colour from the diffi cult birth of their fi rst child. of sand. Gripped by the certainty that her Settler’s Creek Elina struggles to reconcile the demands of daughter is diff erent – special – she names her child Onyesonwu, which means “Who Fears by Carl Nixon motherhood with sense of herself as an artist, and Ted is disturbed by memories of his own Death?” in an ancient tongue. Nominated by: childhood that don’t tally with his parents’ Christchurch City Libraries, New Zealand version of events. As Ted begins to search Nnedi Okorafor is a novelist of Nigerian descent. Her novels include Zahrah the Box Saxton just wants to bury his teenage for answers, an extraordinary portrait of two Windseeker, Th e Shadow Speaker and Long stepson’s body in the churchyard near the farm women is revealed, separated by fi fty years, but Juju Man. Nnedi holds a PhD in English and where Box grew up. What happens, though, connected in ways that neither could ever have currently is a professor of creative writing at when the boy’s biological father, a Maori leader, expected. Chicago State University. unexpectedly turns up in the days before the funeral and forcibly takes the boy’s body? Maggie O’Farrell’s novels include After You’d According to Maori custom the boy must be Gone, My Lover’s Lover, Th e Distance Between buried in the tribe’s ancestral cemetery at the Us, and Th e Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. Born small coastal town of Kaipuna. According to in Northern Ireland, Maggie grew up in Wales the law there is very little Box can do. With no and Scotland. She lives in London with her plan and little hope, Box gets in his old truck husband and two children. and drives north, desperate and heartbroken.

Settler’s Creek explores the claims of both Th e News Where You Are indigenous people and more recent settlers to by Catherine O’Flynn have a spiritual link to the land. Nominated by: Birmingham Libraries, UK Carl Nixon is a short-story writer, novelist and playwright. Fish ‘n’ Chip Shop Song and other Set in Birmingham, Th e News Where You Are stories was a bestseller in New Zealand and tells the funny, touching story of Frank, a local was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers TV news presenter. Beneath his awkwardly Prize Best First Book. His debut novel Rocking corny screen persona, Frank is haunted by Horse Road saw him described as ‘a major disappearances: the mysterious hit and run talent’ by North & South. that killed his predecessor Phil Smethway; the demolition of his father’s post-war brutalist www.impacdublinaward.ie 21 Eligible Titles 2012

Th e Invisible Bridge Landed by Julie Orringer by Tim Pears Nominated by: Nominated by: Laramie County Library System, Cheyenne, USA Tweebronnen Openbare Bibliotheek, San Francisco Public Library, USA Leuven, Belgium Milwaukee Public Library, USA New York Public Library, USA Brought up in the Anglo-Welsh borders by an aff ectionate but alcoholic and feckless mother, Paris, 1937. Andras Lévi, a Hungarian-Jewish Owen Ithell’s sense of self is rooted in his long, architecture student, arrives from Budapest vivid visits to his grandparents’ small farm in with a scholarship, a single suitcase, and a the hills. mysterious letter he promised to deliver. But when he falls into a complicated relationship As an adult he moves to an English city where with the letter’s recipient, he becomes privy to a he builds a new life, working as a gardener. He secret that will alter the course of his – and his meets Mel, they have children. He believes he family’s – history. From the small Hungarian has found happiness – and love – of a sort. town of Konyár to the grand opera houses of Budapest and Paris, from the despair of But a tragic accident changes the course of his Carpathian winter to an unimaginable life life and the lives of those he loves are changed in labour camps, Th e Invisible Bridge tells forever. Owen is haunted by suicidal thoughts. the story of a family shattered and remade in In his despair, he resolves to reconnect with history’s darkest hour. both his past and the natural world, and with Purge his children he embarks on a long, fateful journey, walking to the Welsh borders of his by Sofi Oksanen Julie Orringer is the author of the award- winning short-story collection How to Breathe childhood. Translated from the original Underwater, which was a New York Times Finnish by Lola Rogers Notable Book. She lives in Brooklyn, where she Tim Pears was born in 1956. His novels Nominated by: is researching a new novel. include In the Place of Fallen Leaves and In a Zentralbibliothek Zurich, Switzerland Land of Plenty, which has been adapted for Eesti Rahvusraamatukogu, Tallinn, Estonia television and is now a major BBC television Helsingin Kaupunginkirjasto, Helsinki, Finland Th e Attenbury Emeralds series and A Revolution of the Sun. Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker, Denmark by Jill Paton Walsh Stockholm Public Library, Sweden Nominated by: Stavanger Bibliotek og Kulturhus, Norway Th e Piano Cemetery Chicago Public Library, USA Serres Central Public Library, Greece by José Luis Peixoto Wojewódzka i Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna It was 1921 when Lord Peter Wimsey fi rst Translated from the original im Marszalka J.Pilsudskiego, Lódz, Poland encountered the Attenbury emeralds. Th e Portuguese by Daniel Hahn recovery of the magnifi cent gem in Lord Th ose who deny history are doomed to repeat Nominated by: Attenbury’s most dazzling heirloom made it… Biblioteka Glowna Województwa headlines – and launched a shell-shocked young Mazowieckiego, Warsaw, Poland Deep in an Estonian forest, two women, one aristocrat on his career as a detective. Biblioteca Municipal Central de Lisboa, Portugal young, one old, are hiding. Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Porto, Portugal Now it is 1951: a happily married Lord Peter Biblioteca Demonstrativa de Brasília, Brazil Zara is a prostitute and a murderer, on the has just shared the secrets of that mystery run from brutal captors – men who know how with his wife, the detective novelist Harriet Set in the working-class district of Benfi ca to punish a woman. Aliide off ers refuge but Vane. Th en the new young Lord Attenbury – in Lisbon, Th e Piano Cemetery tells the story not safety: she has her own criminal secrets grandson of Lord Peter’s fi rst client – seeks his of a family, and especially of the hopes and – traitorous crimes of passion and revenge help again, this time to prove who owns the fears of the fathers who pass the baton of the committed long ago, during the country’s gigantic emerald that Wimsey last saw in 1921. generations on to their sons. brutal Soviet years. Since the publication of A Presumption of Th e Lazaro family are cabinet-makers who Both women have survived lives of abuse. But Death, which was set in 1941 in the wartime would rather be piano-makers. Th ey have a this time their survival depends on revealing English countryside, readers have been eagerly carpentry shop in the Benfi ca district of Lisbon the one thing history has taught them to keep asking for this story – a wholly original and and there at the back is the ‘piano cemetery’ safely hidden: the truth. utterly engrossing new detective adventure. piled high with broken-down pianos that provide the spare parts needed for repairing A haunting, intimate and gripping story of Jill Paton Walsh, born in 1937, is also the pianos all over the city. It is a mysterious and suspicion, betrayal and retribution against a author of many non-crime novels for adults: magical place, a place of solace, a dreaming backdrop of Soviet oppression and European the fourth of these, Knowledge of Angels, place and, above all, a trysting place for lovers. war. was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Before writing for adults she made a career as a writer Th e Piano Cemetery is a wonderfully Sofi Oksanen was born in Finland and of children’s books and has won many literary accomplished novel in which the true story of a former graduate of the Finnish Th eatre prizes. the Portuguese marathon-runner, Francisco Academy. She is the author of three novels. Lazaro, is woven into a rich narrative of love, Purge is her fi rst novel to be published in betrayal, domestic happiness and dashed hopes. English translation. She lives in Helsinki. José Luis Peixoto was born in 1974 in the small Portuguese village of Alentejo. He teaches languages and contemporary literature and is also a journalist and literary critic. He is the author of seven works of fi ction and poetry.

22 www.impacdublinaward.ie Eligible Titles 2012

I Curse the River of Time Model Home fi nishing every old edition, leaving her trapped in the past. And the publisher seems less by Per Petterson by Eric Puchner interested in his struggling newspaper than in Translated from the original Nominated by: his magnifi cent basset hound, Schopenhauer. Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund San Francisco Public Library, USA Th e Imperfectionists interweaves the stories of Nominated by: eleven unusual and endearing characters who Warren Ziller moved his family to Southern Cork City Libraries, Ireland depend on the paper. California in search of a charmed life: a gated Dublin City Public Libraries, Ireland community not far from the beach, amid Waterford County Library, Ireland Tom Rachman was born in London and raised the affl uent splendor of the 1980s. But the Gradska Knjižnica Rijeka, Croatia in Vancouver. From 2006 to 2008, he worked Zillers’ American dream is about to be rudely as an editor at the International Herald Tribune A haunting literary masterpiece by the interrupted. Warren has squandered their in Paris. Th e Imperfectionists is his fi rst novel bestselling and prize-winning author of Out savings on a bad real estate investment, which and is being published in ten countries. Stealing Horses. he conceals from his wife. Th eir children have grown as distant as satellites, too busy with It is 1989 and all over Europe Communism their own betrayals and rebellions. When Th e Patience Stone tragedy strikes, the Zillers are forced to move is crumbling. Arvid Jansen is in the throes by Atiq Rahimi of a divorce. At the same time, his mother to Warren’s abandoned housing development in Translated from the original is diagnosed with cancer. Over a few the desert. In this comically bleak new home, French by Polly McLean intense autumn days, we follow Arvid as he each must reckon with what’s led them there struggles to fi nd a new footing in his life, and who’s to blame—and whether they can Nominated by: while everything around him is changing at summon the forgiveness needed to hold the Katona József County Library, staggering speed. As he attempts to negotiate family together. Kecskemét, Hungary the present, he remembers holidays on the Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon, France beach with his brothers, his early working life Eric Puchner is an assistant professor of Gradska Knjižnica Rijeka, Croatia devoted to Communist ideals, courtship, and literature at Claremont McKenna College. Stavanger Bibliotek og Kulturhus, Norway his relationship with his tough, independent His short story collection, Music Th rough the In Persian folklore, Syngue Sabour is the name mother – a relationship full of distance and Floor, was a fi nalist for the NY Public Library’s of a magical black stone, a patience stone, unspoken pain that is central to Arvid’s life. Young Lions Award. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, novelist Katharine Noel, and which absorbs the plight of those who confi de Per Petterson was born in Oslo in 1952. He their children. in it. But here, the Syngue Sabour is not a stone made his literary breakthrough in 2003 with but rather a man lying brain-dead with a bullet the prize-winning novel Out Stealing Horses, lodged in his neck. His wife is with him, sitting which has been translated to 40 languages so by his side. But she resents him for having far and won many prizes. sacrifi ced her to the war, for never being able to resist the call to arms, for being incapacitated in a small skirmish. Yet she cares, and she Th e Sea Captain’s Wife speaks to him, opening up her deepest desires, pains, and secrets. Th e Patience Stone captures by Beth Powning with great courage and spare, poetic, prose the Nominated by: reality of everyday life for an intelligent woman Saint John Free Public Library, under the oppressive weight of the Taliban New Brunswick, Canada regime in Afghanistan. Azuba Galloway, daughter of a shipwright, Atiq Rahimi was born in Afghanistan in 1962, sees ships leaving for foreign ports from but fl ed to France in 1984. Th ere he has become her bustling town on the Bay of Fundy and renowned as a maker of documentary and dreams of seeing the world. When she marries feature fi lms, and as a writer. He lives in Paris. Nathaniel Bradstock, a veteran sea captain, she believes she will sail at his side. But when she becomes pregnant she is forced to stay behind. Th e Lament of the Dhobi When Azuba becomes embroiled in scandal, Nathaniel is forced to take her and their Woman daughter, Carrie, aboard his ship. Th ey set sail by Karen Roberts for London with bitter hearts. Nominated by: Th e Imperfectionists Colombo Public Library, Sri Lanka Th eir voyage is ill-fated, beset with ferocious storms and unforeseen obstacles that test by Tom Rachman Seelawathie, a young village girl is brought Azuba’s compassion, courage and love. Alone in Nominated by: to the city to care for Cat, the daughter of a male world, she must face her fears and fi ght University Library of Bern, Switzerland a prominent Colombo family. With her to keep her family together. Milwaukee Public Library, USA parents involved with each other and their Free Library of Philadelphia, USA active social life, Cat soon comes to regard Beth Powning is the author of several books, Seattle Public Library, USA Seelawathi as her parent and best friend. including Seeds of Another Summer, Th e Hatbox San Francisco Public Library, USA Th ey build their own happy microcosmic life Letters, Edge Seasons and Shadow Child. She Vancouver Public Library, Canada within the large household and are relatively lives in an 1870 farmhouse near Sussex, New content until Seelawathi falls in love. Her Th e newspaper was founded in Rome in the Brunswick, with her husband, artist Peter forbidden relationship challenges the rigid 1950s, a product of passion and a multi- Powning. boundaries of society and leads to a cataclysmic millionaire’s fancy. Over fi fty years, its end of innocence. Th e Lament of the Dhobi eccentricities earned a place in readers’ hearts Woman explores the issue of class in Colombo around the globe. But now, circulation is society and the fragile intricacies of love and down, the paper lacks a website, and the forgiveness. future looks bleak. Still, those involved in the publication seem to barely notice. Th e Born and raised in Sri Lanka, Karen Roberts obituary writer is too busy avoiding work. Th e now lives in California. editor-in-chief is pondering sleeping with an old fl ame. Th e obsessive reader is intent on www.impacdublinaward.ie 23 Eligible Titles 2012

Th e Still Point Limassol Th e Weekend by Amy Sackville by Yishai Sarid by Bernhard Schlink Nominated by: Translated from the original Translated from the original Tampere City Library, Finland Hebrew by Barbara Harshav German by Shaun Whiteside Nominated by: Nominated by: At the turn of the twentieth century, Arctic Stadtbibliothek Bremen, Germany M.I. Rudomino State Library for Foreign explorer Edward Mackley sets out to reach the Literature, Moscow, Russia North Pole and vanishes into the icy landscape. A high-ranking offi cial in the Israeli secret He leaves behind a young wife, Emily, who service is handed a new brief: go undercover Old friends and lovers reunite for a weekend awaits his return for decades, her dreams as an aspiring novelist to befriend Daphna, in a secluded country home after spending and devotion gradually freezing into rigid an Israeli writer, and her friend Hani, a decades apart. widowhood. A hundred years later, Edward’s renowned Palestinian poet. Th e target is Hani’s great-grand-niece Julia moves through the son Yotam, a wanted terrorist leader. As the Th ey excavate old memories and pass old family house, attempting to impose some undercover agent becomes ingrained in Daphna clandestine judgments on the wildly divergent order on the clutter of inherited belongings and Hani’s lives, his own well-entrenched sense paths they’ve taken since their youth. But this and memories from that ill-fated expedition, of right and wrong is clouded. Th e writers have isn’t just any reunion, and their conversations and taking care to ignore the deepening cracks awoken feelings he thought were long dead. Yet about the old days aren’t your typical within her own marriage. But as afternoon his sense of duty and the habits of a lifetime in reminiscences: After twenty-four years, Jörg, turns into evening, Julia makes a discovery that the military propel the agent to go ahead with a convicted murderer and terrorist, has been splinters her long-held image of Edward and his deceptions and lay a trap for Yotam. released from prison. Th e announcement of Emily’s romance, and her husband Simon faces his pardon will send shock waves through the a precipitous choice that will decide the future A spellbinding novel that takes the reader on country, but before the announcement, his of their relationship. a tumultuous journey through the confl icted friends – some of whom were Baader-Meinhof Israeli mind. sympathizers or those who clung to them – Amy Sackville was born in 1981. She studied gather for his fi rst weekend of freedom. Th ey English and Th eatre Studies at Leeds, and went Yishai Sarid studied law at the Hebrew have been summoned by Jörg’s devoted sister, on to an MPhil in English at Exeter College, University of Jerusalem and received a Christiane, whose concern for her brother’s Oxford, and last year completed the MA in graduate degree in public administration from safety is matched only by the unrelenting zeal Creative & Life Writing at Goldsmiths. Her Harvard University. He works as an attorney of Marko, a young man intent on having Jörg short stories have been published in anthologies and contributes articles to the Hebrew press. continue to fi ght for the cause. and literary journals. Limassol is his second novel. Bernhard Schlink was born in Germany. He is the author of the internationally bestselling Heartstone Th e Th ree Weissmanns of novels Th e Reader and Homecoming, as well as by C.J. Sansom Westport the collection of short stories Flights of Love and four prize-winning crime novels. He lives Nominated by: by Cathleen Schine Sheffi eld Libraries, Archives and in Berlin and New York. Nominated by: Information Services, UK New York Public Library, USA Summer, 1545. England is at war. Henry VIII’s Th at Deadman Dance A New York Times Best Seller. A New York invasion of France has gone badly wrong, and a Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. by Kim Scott massive French fl eet is preparing to sail across Nominated by: the Channel . . . Betty Weissmann has just been dumped Th e National Library of Australia, Canberra by her husband of forty-eight years. Exiled Th e State Library of New South Meanwhile, Matthew Shardlake is given an from her elegant New York apartment by her Wales, Sydney, Australia intriguing legal case by an old servant of Queen husband’s mistress, she and her two middle- Th e State Library of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia Catherine Parr. Asked to investigate claims aged daughters, Miranda and Annie, regroup of ‘monstrous wrongs’ committed against his th in a run-down Westport, Connecticut, beach Set in the fi rst decades of the 19 century in young ward, Hugh Curteys, by Sir Nicholas cottage. In Schine’s playful and devoted the area around what is now Albany, Western Hobbey, Shardlake and his assistant Barak homage to Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Australia; Th at Deadman Dance explores the journey to Portsmouth. the impulsive sister is Miranda, a literary agent early contact between the Aboriginal Noongar entangled in a series of scandals, and the more people and the fi rst European settlers. Th e mysteries surrounding the Hobbey family pragmatic sister is Annie, a library director, involve Shardlake in reunions with an old who feels compelled to move in and watch over Th e novel’s hero is a young Noongar man friend and an old enemy close to the throne. her capricious mother and sister. named Bobby Wabalanginy. Clever, resourceful Soon events will converge on board one of the and eager to please, Bobby befriends the king’s great warships gathered in Portsmouth Cathleen Schine is the author of To the new arrivals, joining them hunting whales, harbour, waiting to sail out and confront the Birdhouse, Th e New Yorkers, and Th e Love tilling the land, exploring the hinterland and approaching French fl eet. . . Letter, among other novels. She grew up in establishing the fl edgling colony. He is even Westport, Connecticut, and lives in New York welcomed into a prosperous local white family C. J. Sansom was educated at Birmingham City and Venice, California. where he falls for the daughter, Christine, a University, where he took a BA and then a beautiful young woman who sees no harm in a Ph.D. in history. After working in a variety of liaison with a native. jobs, he retrained as a solicitor and practised in Sussex, until becoming a full-time writer. He But slowly – by design and by accident – things lives in Sussex. begin to change.

Kim Scott grew up on the South Coast of Western Australia. His second novel, ‘Benang: From the Heart’, won the 1999 WA Premier’s Book Award, the 2000 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the 2001 Kate Challis RAKA Award. Kim lives in Coolbellup, Western Australia.

24 www.impacdublinaward.ie Eligible Titles 2012

Chilli, Chicks & Heart It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and Katherine Shonk is the author of Th e Red verse, taking Ella and us into an exotic world Passport, a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Attacks where faith and love are heartbreakingly Year. She works as an editor and writer for by Sanjaya Senanayake explored... Harvard University and lives in Chicago with Nominated by: her husband. Colombo Public Library, Sri Lanka Elif Shafak is an award-winning novelist and the most widely read female writer in Turkey. Th is is a hilarious and light-hearted novel Her novels include Th e Bastard of Istanbul and So Much for Th at relating the mis-adventures of a medical her recent memoir, Black Milk. Her books have by Lionel Shriver intern in the prestigious St. Ivanhoe hospital. been translated into more than 30 languages. Nominated by: Th e book follows the exploits of Dr. Manju She divides her time between London and Th e State Library of Queensland, Mendis, a Sri Lankan living in Australia who Istanbul. Brisbane, Australia having come through medical school with fi rst class honours is starting off his year as a Shepherd Knacker has been saving all his medical intern in the much vaunted St. Ivanhoe Inheritance working life for a one way ticket away from Hospital. But right from the word go, author by Nicholas Shakespeare the daily grind. When he sells his handyman Dr. Sanjaya Senanayake leaves the reader in Nominated by: business for $1million, ‘Th e Afterlife’ seems no doubt that this is no mere diary of hospital Th e State Library of South Australia, Adelaide tantalisingly within reach. Yet his wife has life. Manju’s escapades, all told with great concocted one reason after another why now candour right from the opening chapter are What would you do if you suddenly and isn’t the time to go. Determined to take the alternately salacious and mind-boggling. Dr. unexpectedly inherited £17,000,000? plunge, Shep announces that he is leaving Mendis straddles cultural norms & takes a for an island off the coast of Tanzania: with pragmatic approach to life when it threatens his Th is is what happens to Andy Larkham, or without her. However, Glynis has an conservative views. recently jilted lover, and resentfully underpaid announcement of her own – she needs his publishing minion. Arriving late to the funeral health insurance. Sanjaya Senanayake grew up in New Zealand of his favourite schoolteacher, he ends up in and Australia. A Consultant Physician in the wrong chapel with one other mourner, too Illustrating how a marriage is both stressed and Infectious Diseases and Senior Lecturer at embarrassed to leave. Pressured to sign the strengthened by medical crisis, So Much for Th at the Australian National University Medical register, little does he realise what eff ect that puts the uncomfortable fi scal question: how School, he is also the author of two medical signature will have upon his life. much is one life worth? Surely, the funniest and books. most entertaining novel about illness and death Th e extraordinary story that follows tells one’s ever likely to read. of one man’s failed love, the temptations of unanticipated wealth, the secrets of damaged Lionel Shriver is the author of nine novels, families and the price of being true to oneself. including the international bestseller, We Need It is a romance for our times. to Talk About Kevin, and a journalist for the Guardian, the New York Times, and the Daily Nicholas Shakespeare was born in 1957. His Telegraph, among many other publications. She novels have been translated into 20 languages. lives in London and New York City. Th ey include Th e Vision of Elena Silves, Snowleg and Th e Dancer Upstairs. His last novel, Secrets of the Sea, was a best-seller in Germany. He is Super Sad True Love Story married with two small boys and currently lives by Gary Shteyngart in Oxford. Nominated by: Biblioteques de Barcelona, Spain Happy Now? Limerick City Libraries, Ireland by Katherine Shonk Cleveland Public Library, USA San José Public Library, USA Nominated by: Cape Breton Regional Library, Sydney, Canada Named one of the best books of the year by: Th e Washington Post, Th e Boston Globe, San After many lonely years and alarming Internet Francisco Chronicle, Th e Seattle Times, Th e dates, Claire Kessler believed she had found the Oprah Magazine "O", Th e Globe and Mail, perfect man, Jay. Less than two years later, Jay Vancouver Sun and Th e Montreal Gazette. Th e Forty Rules of Love killed himself. In the near future, America is crushed by by Elif Shafak Happy Now? follows Claire’s chaotic and often a fi nancial crisis and our patient Chinese Translated from the original tragicomic journey through the weeks that creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the Turkish by Elif Shafak follow her husband’s suicide. Nomie, Claire’s whole mess. Th en Lenny Abramov, son of an pregnant younger sister, welcomes Claire Nominated by: Russian immigrant janitor and ardent fan of into her guesthouse and abandons her own Th e National Library of Turkey, Ankara “printed, bound media artifacts” (aka books), husband in solidarity. Claire’s father turns into meets Eunice Park, an impossibly cute Korean Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage a concerned stalker. Encounters with well- American woman with a major in Images and children, and a pleasant home. Everything that meaning therapists go horribly awry, and Jay’s a minor in Assertiveness. Could falling in love should make her confi dent and fulfi lled. Yet abandoned cat goes on a hunger strike. All redeem a planet falling apart? there is an emptiness at the heart of Ella’s life – the while, Jay’s suicide note lurks on the coff ee an emptiness once fi lled by love. table, waiting for Claire to gather the courage Gary Shteyngart was born in Leningrad in to read it. As she struggles to confront the truth 1972 and came to the United States seven years So when Ella reads a manuscript about the about her marriage, Claire also struggles to later. His works include Th e Russian Debutante’s thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi and Shams negotiate life as a young widow. Handbook, and Absurdistan. His books have of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, been translated into more than 20 languages. she is shocked out of herself. Turning her back He lives in New York City. on her family she embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author of this work. www.impacdublinaward.ie 25 Eligible Titles 2012

Th e Rembrandt Aff air Birdbrain Constantine’s Crossing by Daniel Silva by Johanna Sinisalo by Dejan Stojiljković Nominated by: Translated from the original Translated from the original Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Porto, Portugal Finnish by David Hackston Serbian by Randall A. Major Nominated by: Nominated by: Determined to sever his ties with the Offi ce, Helsingin Kaupunginkirjasto, Finland City Library of Belgrade, Serbia Gabriel Allon has retreated to the windswept City Library of Herceg-Novi, Montenegro cliff s of Cornwall with his beautiful Venetian- Birdbrain is a skilful portrait of the born wife Chiara. But once again his seclusion unquenchable desire of Westerners for the pure World War II, the sleepy little town of Niš in is interrupted by a visitor from his tangled past: and the primitive. A young Finnish couple goes southern Serbia, occupied by the Nazis. Field the endearingly eccentric London art dealer, on the hiking trip of a lifetime in Australasia Commander Otto von Fehn has to cope with Julian Isherwood. As usual, Isherwood has a with Heart of Darkness as reading material. one headache after another: too many troops problem. Th e trip gradually turns into a tortuous thriller and not enough support or supplies. with belongings disappearing and, even more In the ancient English city of Glastonbury, an mysteriously, reappearing. Th e travelers come Few people know that Naissus (modern day art restorer has been brutally murdered and a to be at the mercy of untamed nature. Birdbrain Niš) is the birthplace of Constantine the Great, long-lost portrait by Rembrandt mysteriously reveals the dark side of the explorer’s desire: the or that he constructed a mighty armoury there. stolen. Despite his reluctance, Gabriel is insatiable need to control, to invade and leave Major Heinrich Kahn of the SS certainly persuaded to use his unique skills to search one’s mark on the landscape. But what happens did not. He is sent to the backwaters of the for the painting and those responsible for the when nature starts to fi ght back? Balkan’s on a mission by the Fuehrer himself. crime. But as he painstakingly follows a trail of He must fi nd Constantine’s Crossing beneath clues leading from Amsterdam to Buenos Aires Johanna Sinisalo studied comparative the town and capture the fi nal relic – the battle and, fi nally, to a villa on the graceful shores literature and drama, amongst other subjects, sword of Constantine – that will give Hitler the of Lake Geneva, Gabriel discovers there are at the University of Tampere. Sinisalo was ultimate power he needs to complete his plan to deadly secrets connected to the painting. awarded the Finlandia Prize for literature in master the world. 2000 for her fi rst novel, Ennen päivänlaskua ei Daniel Silva is the #1 New York Times- voi, translated as Not Before Sundown in 2003 Dejan Stojiljković was born in 1976 in Niš. bestselling author of Th e Unlikely Spy, Th e Mark and again as Troll — A Love Story in 2004 for He published a collection of urban stories Leva of the Assassin, Th e Marching Season, Th e Kill the American market strana druma (Left Side of the Road, 2007) and Artist, Th e English Assassin, Th e Confessor, A a collection of stories inspired by the myths Death in Vienna, Prince of Fire, Th e Messenger, and legends of rock-n-roll entitled Low Life Th e Secret Servant, Moscow Rules and Th e Dry Season (2008). He lives in Niš where he works as the Defector. by Dan Smith editor-in-chief of “Pressing” magazine and the informative internet portal NišKafe. Nominated by: Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand Newcastle City Libraries, UK by Helen Simonson On the banks of a sprawling Brazilian river lies Th e Eternal Son Nominated by: Sao Tiago – forsaken by its people and by God by Cristovão Tezza Pikes Peak Library District, – the perfect place for a fallen priest to escape Translated from the original Colorado Springs, USA his past. Sam whiles away his time drinking Portuguese by Alison Entrekin Newfoundland & Labrador and fi shing, but when one bloody night he helps Nominated by: Public Libraries, Canada a dying stranger, he feels a change is coming. Biblioteca Demonstrativa de Brasília, Brazil Biblioteca Municipal Central de Lisboa, Portugal In the small village of Edgecombe St. Mary Soon Sam catches the attention of the dead in the English countryside lives Major Ernest man’s employer, the formidable Catarina Da In this multi-award-winning autobiographical Pettigrew (retired). Wry, courtly, opinionated, Silva whose hypnotic gaze he has trouble novel, Cristovão Tezza draws his readers into and completely endearing, the Major leads resisting. But little does he know that in a place the mind of a young father whose son, Felipe, a quiet life valuing the proper things that where life is cheap, love can be deadly. Trapped is born with Down Syndrome. From the initial Englishmen have lived by for generations: in Da Silva’s dangerous web, Sam fi nds himself shock of diagnosis, and through his growing honour, duty, decorum, and a properly brewed plummeting towards Sao Tiago’s dark heart. understanding of the world of hospitals and cup of tea. But then his brother’s death sparks And as the heavens fi nally open, he must face therapies, Tezza threads the story of his son’s an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina his past if he is to fi nd redemption... life with his own. Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together by their shared love Dan Smith grew up following his parents Felipe, who lives in an eternal present, becomes of literature and the loss of their spouses, the across the world to Africa, Indonesia and a remarkable young man; for Tezza, however, Major and Mrs. Ali soon fi nd their friendship Brazil. He has been writing short stories for the story is a settling of accounts with himself blossoming. But village society insists on as long as he can remember and has been and his own limitations and, ultimately, a embracing him as the quintessential local and published in the anthology MATTER 4. He coming to terms with the sublime ironies and regarding her as the permanent foreigner. Can lives in Newcastle with his family. arbitrariness of life. He struggles with the their relationship survive the risks one takes phantom of shame, as if his son’s condition was when pursuing happiness in the face of culture an indication of his own worth, and yearns for a and tradition? ‘normal’ world that is always out of reach.

Helen Simonson was born in England and Cristovão Tezza, one of Brazil’s foremost spent her teenage years in a small village in contemporary novelists, was born in 1952. East Sussex. A longtime resident of Brooklyn, He has published thirteen novels, including she now lives with her husband and two sons in O Filho Eterno (Th e Eternal Son), which won the Washington, D.C., area. Major Pettigrew’s every major literary prize in Brazil in 2008 and Last Stand is her fi rst novel. has been translated into seven languages. Tezza lives in Curitiba, in the south of Brazil.

26 www.impacdublinaward.ie Eligible Titles 2012

and the demands of work and family, becomes fi rst time and realize just how closely their lives entangled in an aff air that threatens to destroy have been bound together by what happened on his family’s future. the bride fl ight.

Beautifully written, keenly observed, and Marieke Van Der Pol is the author of the ultimately redemptive, Th e Lonely Polygamist is prize-winning script for the international hit an unforgettable story of an American family- fi lm Th e Twin Girls. Bride Flight, her debut with its inevitable dysfunctionality, heartbreak, novel, has also been made into a fi lm in Th e and comedy-pushed to its outer limits. Netherlands.

Brady Udall is the author of Letting Loose the Hounds, Th e Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, and Th e Secret History of Th e Lonely Polygamist. His work has appeared Costaguana in Th e Paris Review, Esquire, Playboy, and by Juan Gabriel Vásquez elsewhere. He lives in Boise, Idaho. Translated from the original Spanish by Anne McLean Goodnight Father Nominated by: by Chike Uzoma Zentralbibliothek Zurich, Switzerland Nominated by: Biblioteca Daniel Cosío Villegas de Oyo State Library Board, Nigeria El Colegio de México, Mexico

Nnadi Uzomba, a native of Amoka, declined London, 1903. Joseph Conrad is struggling Curiosity to abide by native customs, especially female with his new novel. Progress is slow and by Joan Th omas circumcision. His resistance to this was due the great writer needs help from a native of Nominated by: to the death of several of his childhood mates, the Caribbean coast of South America. José Ottawa Public Library, Canada including his elder sister as a result of injuries Altamirano, Colombian at birth, who has just sustained from the knife of circumcision. arrived in London, answers the great writer’s More than 40 years before the publication advertisement and tells him his life story. José of Th e Origin of Species, 12-year-old Mary As Amoka people do not mix miracle has been witness to the most horrible things Anning, a cabinet-maker’s daughter, found the with logic, the gods would be angry if the that a person or a country could suff er, and fi rst intact skeleton of a prehistoric dolphin- community reneged on the circumcision drags with him not just a guilty conscience but like creature, and spent a year chipping it from of girls. Consequently, Nnadi was cast into a story that has almost destroyed him. the soft cliff s near Lyme Regis. Th is was only slavery but was, in the course of his voyage to the fi rst of many important discoveries made the Americans, rescued by a British anti-slave Th e Secret History of Costaguana, is José by this incredible woman, perhaps the most naval vessel; and brought to Clabar where he Altamirano’s riposte to Joseph Conrad. It important paleontologist of her day. met Meryl a pioneer missionary. He was to is a big novel, tragic and despairing, comic form part of the early eff ort in proselytising the and insightful by turns, told by a bumptious As an adolescent, Henry de la Beche ran away hinterland including his native Amoka land by narrator with a score to settle. It is Latin from military college, and soon found himself which he was re-united with his beleaguered America’s post-modern answer to Europe’s living with his elegant, cynical mother in family. modernist vision. Lyme Regis, where he pursued his passion for drawing and painting the landscapes and fossils Chike Uzoma, is a practising lawyer based Juan Gabriel Vásquez was born in Bogotá in of the area. One morning on an expedition to in Abuja and hails from Amaigo, Imo State, 1973. His stories have appeared in anthologies see an extraordinary discovery — a giant fossil Nigeria. in Germany, France, Spain, and Colombia. He — he meets a young woman unlike anyone he was recently nominated as one of the Bogotá has ever met… 39, South America’s most promising writers of Bride Flight the new generation. Joan Th omas’s debut novel Reading by by Marieke Van Der Pol Lightning (2008), won the Commonwealth Translated from the original Prize for Best First Book (Canada/Caribbean) Th e Russian Window Dutch by Colleen Higgins and the Amazon.ca First Novel Award. She by Dragan Velikić Nominated by: lives in Winnipeg. Translated from the original Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, Serbian by Randall A. Major Th e Netherlands Th e Lonely Polygamist Th e Association of Public Libraries Nominated by: City Library of Belgrade, Serbia by Brady Udall Th e Hague, Th e Netherlands Openbare Bibliotheek Eindhoven, City Library of Herceg-Novi, Montenegro Nominated by: Th e Netherlands National Library Service of In this sweet and sour image of European th Barbados, Bridgetown 1953, and a KLM fl ight leaves London, bound history at the end of the 20 century, the writer Jacksonville Public Library, USA for Christchurch, New Zealand. Of its sixty off ers us an omnibus novel in three parts, with emigrating passengers, many are brides-to-be two main characters (an elderly man and a Golden Richards, husband to four wives, fl ying out to join their fi ancés on the other young man) and many accompanying portraits. father to twenty-eight children, is having the side of the world. Among them are Ada, Using various narrative techniques, intelligent mother of all midlife crises. His construction Marjorie and Esther, each of them with their humour and subtle irony, the protagonists business is failing, his family has grown into own reasons for wanting to leave behind the summarize the chances they have missed and an overpopulated mini-dukedom beset with hardships of post-war life at home. During the talk about their premonitions of the new ones insurrection and rivalry, and he is done in trip they meet Frank, a charismatic bachelor, to come. In doing so, they live out their stories with grief due to the accidental death of a who will come to have a dramatic infl uence and those of other people, looking for meaning daughter and the stillbirth of a son. He has on each of their lives. Years later, at Frank’s in the past in order to understand the present. come to doubt the capacity of his own heart. funeral, the three women – now ‘brides in We read about the main character leaving his Brady Udall tells a tragicomic story of a black’ – get to hear each other’s stories for the bombed out country, dabbling in a variety deeply faithful man who, crippled by grief of odd jobs thorough Europe, composing

www.impacdublinaward.ie 27 Eligible Titles 2012 and decomposing his own personality which Cool Water boat escaping a confl ict zone. Will a series of becomes clearest in the gap between the things unfortunate events precipitate disaster on them by Dianne Warren expected and the things done. before nature unleashes a savage storm? Only Nominated by: time will tell as they race inexorably towards Dragan Velikić was born in 1953 in Belgrade. Calgary Public Library, Canada their destiny. He grew up in the Croatian town of Pula on Ottawa Public Library, Canada the Adriatic coast. He has published eight Channa Wickremesekera was born in novels and his books have been translated into Juliet, Saskatchewan, is a blink-of-an-eye Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1967. He obtained a twelve European languages. He now lives in kind of town – the welcome sign announces PhD at Monash University, Australia in Asian Belgrade as a freelancer. a population of 1,011 people – and it’s easy to History. He has published four books so far, imagine that nothing happens on its hot and Walls, Distant Warriors (fi ction), Best Black dusty streets. Troops In Th e World, and Kandy At War (non fi ction). But the heart of the town beats in the rich and overlapping stories of its people: the foundling who now owns the farm his adoptive family left Luke and John him; the pregnant teenager and her mother, by Robert Williams planning a fairytale wedding; a shy couple, well beyond middle age, struggling with the Nominated by: recognition of their feelings for one another; a Bergen Off entlige Bibliotek, Norway camel named Antoinette; and the ubiquitous Luke’s mum is dead. He fi nds himself in a wind and sand that forever shift the landscape. small, scruff y northern hill town, with a near Th eir stories bring the prairie desert and the silent father, who he fears might be trying to town of Juliet to vivid and enduring life. drink himself to death. Th en he meets Jon. Dianne Warren is the author of three books of Jon is strange. He wears 1950s clothes, has a short fi ction and three plays. Her most recent side-parting and a twitch. Th e kids at school collection, A Reckless Moon, was a Globe and call him ‘Slackjaw’. When Luke discovers Jon’s Mail Best Book of 2002, and in 2004 she won secret, both their lives are changed for good. the Marian Engel Award for a woman writer in mid-career. Th e winner of the National Book Tokens’ Not-Yet-Published Prize, Luke and Jon is Weeping Underwater Looks a an arresting debut about friendship, grief and how lives can change forever in a single Lean on Pete Lot Like Laughter second. Written with great power, warmth by Willy Vlautin by Michael J. White and humour, it signals a hugely engaging and Nominated by: Nominated by: original new voice Bibliotheek Rotterdam, Th e Netherlands Cleveland Public Library, USA grew up in Clitheroe, Waterford County Library, Ireland Robert Williams George Flynn is the new nobody at St. Lancashire and currently lives in Manchester. Fifteen-year-old Charley Th ompson wants a Pius High School, until he falls in with the He worked in a secondary school library before home. Food on the table and in the cupboard; enchanting Schell sisters. Emily, an aspiring working as a bookseller with Waterstone’s. a high school he can attend for more than part actress, is the object of his infatuation. But Luke and Jon is his fi rst novel. of a year; and some structure to his life. But as there’s something special about her quirky the son of a single father working at warehouses younger sister, Katie, who has her own crush across the Pacifi c Northwest, Charley’s been on George, not to mention a scathing deadpan A Death in Panama pretty much on his own for sometime. sense of humour in the face of multiple by Ronald A. Williams sclerosis. Nominated by: Lean on Pete opens as Charley and his father National Library Service of arrive in Portland, Oregon and Charley takes When an accident destroys their delicate Barbados, Bridgetown a stables job, illegally, at the local race track. balance, George and Emily fi nd themselves Once part of a vibrant racing network, Portland searching for forgiveness yet losing each other. Set in Panama, Barbados and the U.S., A Death Meadows is now seemingly the last haven for in Panama presents us with the mysterious washed up jockeys and knackered horses, but With no-holds-barred honesty and razor-sharp and frightening world of the Panama of the it’s there that Charley meets Pete, an old horse wit, Michael J. White’s debut novel explores fi rst decade of the 20th century when the canal who becomes his companion as he’s forced to friendship, fi rst love, and a young man’s need to was being built and fortunes were being made, try and make his own way in the world. come of age without coming undone. many in highly unlawful ways.

Willy Vlautin is the author of two highly Michael J. White was born and raised in Now, in 1976, a decision is on the verge of acclaimed novels, Th e Motel Life (2005) and St. Louis, though he also spent several years being made to return the canal to Panama. Northline (2007). He is also an avid fan of in Chicago and Des Moines. He has taught Many corporations, descendants of companies horseracing; he can often be found writing English in South Korea, Peru, Poland, and formed when the 20th century was young, are behind a closed circuit monitor at Portland New York City. A Columbia MFA graduate, he terrifi ed that the horrifi c secrets of that period Meadows racetrack. lives in Denver. will become known upon the return. At the centre of this drama are two men, Rupert Barnes and Octavius Bryant, both survivors of In the Same Boat the lawless period. Th ey are now old men, but by Channa Wickremesekera they are hardly incapacitated. As the American Nominated by: government moves toward return of the canal, Colombo Public Library, Sri Lanka both men fi nd themselves drawn into a confl ict that had begun in the jungles of Panama. Writing with keen insight into the psyche of the displaced, Channa Wickremesekera, Dr. Ronald A. Williams was born in author of Distant Warriors and Walls, brings Barbados. He now resides in Maryland and his characters into the close confi nes of a is a vice president of the College Board in

28 www.impacdublinaward.ie Eligible Titles 2012

Washington, D.C. He has a Ph.D. in English Annabel Th e Private Lives of Trees and enjoys reading and golfi ng. He and his wife by Kathleen Winter by Alejandro Zambra have two daughters. Nominated by: Translated from the original Calgary Public Library, Canada Spanish by Megan McDowell Newfoundland & Labrador Nominated by: Public Libraries, Canada Biblioteca Daniel Cosío Villegas de Saint John Free Public Library, El Colegio de México, México New Brunswick, Canada Ottawa Public Library, Canada Th e Private Lives of Trees tells the story of a Vancouver Public Library, Canada single night: a young professor of literature named Julián is reading to his step-daughter In 1968, into the beautiful, spare environment Daniela and nervously waiting for his wife of remote coastal Labrador, a mysterious child Verónica to return from her art class. Each is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully night, Julián has been improvising a story about boy nor girl, but both at once. Only three trees to tell Daniela before she goes to sleep, people are privy to the secret – the baby’s and each Sunday he works on a novel about parents, Jacinta and Treadway, and a trusted a man tending to his bonsai, but something neighbour, Th omasina. Together the adults about this night is diff erent. As Julián becomes make a diffi cult decision: to raise the child as increasing concerned that Verónica won’t a boy named Wayne. But as Wayne grows to return, he refl ects on their life together in adulthood within the hyper-masculine hunting minute detail, and imagines what Daniela—at culture of his father, his shadow-self – a girl twenty, at twenty-fi ve, at thirty years old, he thinks of as Annabel – is never entirely without a mother—will think of his novel. extinguished, and indeed is secretly nurtured by the women in his life. Alejandro Zambra is acclaimed as the greatest writer of Chile’s younger generation. His fi rst Th eir Faces were Shining Annabel is a compelling debut novel about novel, Bonsai, was awarded Chile’s Literary by Tim Wilson one person’s struggle to discover the truth in a Critics’ Award for Best Novel, and the English culture that shuns contradiction. Nominated by: translation by Carolina De Robertis (Melville House, 2008) was a fi nalist for the Best Christchurch City Libraries, New Zealand Kathleen Winter’s fi rst collection of short Translated Book Award. stories, boYs, was the winner of both the When Hope Paterson plunges into a Winterset Award and the 2006 Metcalfe- construction hole at her local mall and saves Rooke Award. A long-time resident of St. a child from drowning, she believes this is Th e Sandbox John’s, Newfoundland, she now lives in a sign from God. Maybe her marriage, her by David Zimmerman Montreal. relationship with her daughter – even her diet Nominated by: – will be revitalized. Days later, a car crashes LeRoy Collins Leon County Public outside Hope’s offi ce. Th e young passenger Bereft Library, Tallahassee, USA is dead but the driver has mysteriously by Chris Womersley disappeared, leaving just her clothes. Th en her Operating Base Cornucopia. A three-hundred- daughter calls unexpectedly. She is weeping. Nominated by: year-old fortress in the remote Iraqi desert Kids fl oated up through the roof in calculus Th e State Library of New South where a few dozen soldiers wait for their class, their faces glowing with unearthly light. Wales, Sydney, Australia next assignment, among them Private Toby She sobs: “Mom, it’s the Rapture.” Th e State Library of Tasmania, Australia Durrant, a self-described “broke nobody.” Th en a deadly ambush touches off events that It is 1919. Th e Great War has ended, but the “Th e Rapture?” thinks Hope, “on a Monday?” put Durrant in the middle of a far-reaching Spanish fl u epidemic is raging across Australia. conspiracy. Insurgents massing in the Th e world ends; the world carries on. Th e Dalai Schools are closed, state borders are guarded nearby hills, a secretive member of military Lama is seen fl oating above a duplex on Fifth by armed men, and train travel is severely intelligence, an abandoned toy factory and a Avenue, laughing uproariously. As anarchy restricted. Th ere are rumours it is the end of mysterious, half-feral child—Durrant must descends, Hope must fi ght for those she has the world. fi gure out the links between them if he’s to loved so poorly, and then for herself. In the NSW town of Flint, Quinn Walker survive. Th is blistering look at military life in “the sandbox” of Iraq marks the debut of a Tim Wilson has written for numerous New returns to the home he fl ed ten years earlier major new talent. Zealand publications as well as the Guardian when he was accused of an unspeakable crime. and Newsweek.com. His short fi ction has Aware that his father and uncle would surely David Zimmerman was raised in Atlanta, appeared in Sport, Metro, the Listener and hang him, Quinn hides in the hills surrounding Georgia, by an Army Nurse and an Army JAG Open City (New York). Th eir Faces Were Flint. Th ere, he meets the orphan Sadie Fox offi cer. After receiving his MFA in creative Shining is his fi rst book. — a mysterious young girl who seems to know writing from the University of Alabama, he more about the crime than she should. spent several years living and working in Brazil A searing gothic novel of love, longing and and Ethiopia. He now teaches at Iowa State justice, Bereft is about the suff ering endured by University. Th e Sandbox is his fi rst novel. those who go to war and those who are forever left behind.

Chris Womersley’s debut novel, Th e Low Road, won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Book in 2008. His fi ction and reviews have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. In 2007 one of his short stories won the Josephine Ulrick Literature Prize.

www.impacdublinaward.ie 29 Participating Libraries – 162 libraries representing 122 cities in 45 countries

Australia Estonia Adelaide, Th e State Library of South Australia Tallinn, Eesti Rahvusraamatukogu Brisbane, Th e State Library of Queensland Canberra, Th e National Library of Australia Finland Hobart, Th e State Library of Tasmania Helsinki, Helsingin Kaupunginkirjasto Melbourne, Th e State Library of Victoria Tampere, Tampere City Library Sydney, Th e State Library of New South Wales France Barbados Lyon, Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon Bridgetown, National Library Service of Barbados Mulhouse, Bibliothèque Municipale de Mulhouse Nice, Bibliothèque Municipale de Nice Belgium Strasbourg, Bibliothèque Municipale de Strasbourg Brussels, Hoofdstedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek Gent, Stedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek Gent Germany Leuven, Tweebronnen Openbare Bibliotheek Berlin, Zentral-und Landesbibliothek Berlin Bremen, Stadtbibliothek Bremen Bermuda Dusseldorf, Stadtbüchereien Düsseldorf Hamilton, Bermuda National Library Frankfurt, Stadtbücherei Frankfurt-am-Main Leipzig, Leipziger Stadtische Bibliotheken Brazil Mainz, Bibliotheken der Stadt Mainz Brasilia, Biblioteca Demonstrativa de Brasília Munich, Münchner Stadtbibliothek

Canada Greece Calgary, Calgary Public Library Serres, Serres Central Public Library Edmonton, Edmonton Public Library Veria, Veria Central Public Library and Grant Mac Ewan University Library Gander, Newfoundland & Labrador Public Libraries Hungary Halifax, Halifax Public Libraries Kecskemét, Katona József County Library Ottawa, Ottawa Public Library Saint John, Saint John Free Public Library India Sydney, Cape Breton Regional Library New Delhi, India International Centre Library Toronto, Toronto Public Library Vancouver, Vancouver Public Library Ireland Winnipeg, Winnipeg Public Library Cork, Cork City Libraries Dublin, Dublin City Public Libraries Croatia Limerick, Limerick City Library Rijeka, Gradska Knjiznica Rijeka Waterford, Waterford County Library

Cyprus Italy Nicosia, Cyprus Library Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Firenze Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III Czech Republic, Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma Karviná-Mizerov, Regional Library of Karviná Prague, Městská knihovna v Praze Jamaica Kingston, Jamaica Library Service Denmark Aarhus, Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker Japan Copenhagen, Copenhagen Central Library Osaka, Osaka Municipal Library

England Malaysia Birmingham, Birmingham Libraries Kuala Lumpur, National Library of Malaysia Gateshead, Gateshead Libraries Liverpool, Liverpool Libraries & Information Services Maldives London, London’s Public Libraries Male, Th e National Library of Maldives Newcastle, Newcastle City Libraries Sheffi eld, Sheffi eld Libraries, Archives & Information Services

30 www.impacdublinaward.ie Mexico Switzerland Mexico City, Biblioteca Daniel Cosío Villegas de El Colegio de México Bern, University Library of Bern Geneva, Bibliothèques Municipales Geneva Montenegro Zurich, Zentralbibliothek Zurich Herceg Novi, City Library of Herceg Novi Th e Netherlands New Zealand Amsterdam, Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam Auckland, Auckland Libraries Eindhoven, Openbare Bibliotheek Eindhoven Christchurch, Christchurch City Libraries Rotterdam, Bibliotheek Rotterdam Dunedin, Dunedin Public Libraries Th e Hague, Th e Association of Public Libraries Th e Hague Wellington, Wellington City Libraries Utrecht, Gemeentebibliotheek Utrecht

Nigeria Trinidad & Tobago Ibadan, Oyo State Library Board Port-of-Spain, National Library & Information System Authority

Norway Turkey Bergen, Bergen Off entlige Bibliotek Ankara, National Library of Turkey Oslo, Oslo Public Libraries Stavanger, Stavanger Bibliotek og Kulturhus USA Boston, Boston Public Library Poland Cheyenne, Laramie County Library System Łódź, Wojewódzka i Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna im Marszalka Chicago, Chicago Public Library J.Pilsudskiego Cincinnati, Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County Warsaw, Biblioteka Glowna Województwa Mazowieckiego Cleveland, Cleveland Public Library Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak Library District Portugal Columbia, Richland County Public Library Lisbon, Biblioteca Municipal Central de Lisboa Concord, New Hampshire State Library Porto, Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Porto Denver, Denver Public Library Hartford, Hartford Public Library Russia Houston, Houston Public Library Moscow, M.I. Rudomino State Library for Foreign Literature Jacksonville, Jacksonville Public Library Kansas City, Kansas City Public Library Lincoln, Lincoln City Libraries Scotland Milwaukee, Milwaukee Public Library Aberdeen, Aberdeen Library & Information Services New York, New York Public Library Philadelphia, Free Library of Philadelphia Serbia Pittsburgh, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Belgrade, Municipal Public Library “Milutin Bojic” Portland, Multnomah County Library Richmond, Richmond Public Library Singapore San Diego, San Diego Public Library Singapore, National Library Board San Francisco, San Francisco Public Library San José, San José Public Library Slovenia Seattle, Seattle Public Library Ljubljana, Knjižnica Otona Župancica Springfi eld, Lincoln Library Tallahassee, LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library South Africa Cape Town, Cape Town Central Library

Spain Barcelona, Biblioteques de Barcelona

Sri Lanka, Colombo, Colombo Public Library

Sweden Stockholm, Stockholm Public Library

www.impacdublinaward.ie 31 Judging Panel 2012

Mike McCormack Evelyn Schlag Born in 1965, Mike McCormack grew up in the Evelyn Schlag was born in 1952 in Waidhofen/ West of Ireland. He has published a collection of Ybbs (Lower Austria). She studied German short stories Getting it in the Head and two novels and English Language and Literature at the – Crowe’s Requiem and Notes from a Coma. In University of Vienna. She is an award-winning 1996, McCormack was awarded the Rooney Prize Reginephoto: Hendrich poet and novelist, listed for the European for Irish Literature and in 1998, Getting it in the Aristeion Prize in 1998. Evelyn is also translator Head was chosen as a New York Times Notable of contemporary English and American poetry Book of the Year. McCormack’s current novel and has done readings all over Europe (including Notes from a Coma was short-listed for the Irish Hay Festival of Literature 1992, Hay Festival Book of the Year Award and John Waters from Segovia 2011), the USA (incl. PEN World Voices Th e Irish Times described it as ‘the greatest Irish Festival 2008), Canada (including Harborfront novel of the decade just ended’. McCormack lives Festival of Literature Toronto 1987), Russia. in Galway city. Evelyn has given poetry lectures at Graz and Klagenfurt Universities and was writer-in- residence in Carlisle, PA. She was also lecturer for Elizabeth Nunez poetry at the Institut für Sprachkunst (University Elizabeth Nunez emigrated from Trinidad to the of Applied Arts Vienna) 2010-2011. Evelyn lives US after completing high school. She received in Waidhofen/Ybbs. her Ph.D. in English from New York University and is a Distinguished Professor of English photo: Leonidphoto: Knizhnik at Hunter College, CUNY. She is the author Dubravka Ugresic of eight novels: Boundaries; Anna In-Between Dubravka Ugresic is the author of several (2010 PEN Oakland Literary Award); Prospero’s novels, short story collections and essays. Her Daughter (Trinidad and Tobago One Book, books – Baba Yaga Laid An Egg, Nobody’s Home, One Community selection, and 2006 Novel Th e Ministry of Pain, Lend Me Your Character, of the Year Black Issues Book Review); Grace; Th ank You For Not Reading, Th e Museum of Discretion (short-listed for the Hurston/Wright Unconditional Surrender, Th e Culture of Lies, Have Legacy Award); Bruised Hibiscus (American Book A Nice Day, In the Jaws of Life and Other Stories, Award); Beyond the Limbo Silence (Independent Fording the Stream of Consciousness – have been Publishers Book Award); and When Rocks Dance. translated into many European languages and Nunez is co-editor of the anthology Stories from received several international literary awards. Her Blue Latitudes: Caribbean Women Writers at Home latest book of essays Karaoke Culture will appear and Abroad. She is the co-founder of the National in English later this year. Dubravka Ugresic lives Black Writers Conference and executive producer as a free lance writer. She is based in Amsterdam. of the 2004 NY Emmy-nominated CUNY TV series Black Writers in America. Eugene R. Sullivan Hon. Eugene R. Sullivan, non-voting chair Tim Parks of the judging panel, is a former Chief Judge of Born in Manchester in 1954, Tim Parks studied a US Court of Appeals and brings a wealth of at Cambridge and Harvard before moving experience from sixteen years on the bench. His permanently to Italy in 1981. Author of three fi rst novel, Th e Majority Rules, was published in bestselling books on Italy, plus a dozen novels, 2005. Th e second novel of his political thriller including the Booker short-listed Europa, he has trilogy, Th e Report to the Judicicary, was published translated works by Moravia, Calvino, Calasso in 2008. When not recalled to the Federal Bench, and, most recently, Machiavelli. While running Judge Sullivan is a partner in the Washington, a post-graduate degree course in translation at D.C. law fi rm of Freeh, Sporkin & Sullivan, LLP. IULM University, Milan, he writes regularly for the LRB and the NYRB. His non-fi ction works include, Translating Style, a literary approach to translation problems, Medici Money, an account of the relation between banking, the Church and art in the 15th century, and, most recently, Teach Us to Sit Still, which was described by David Lodge as: “A searingly honest, viscerally vivid, darkly comic self-examination of the connections between writing, personality and health.”

32 www.impacdublinaward.ie Th e Award Committee Jason Clarke Photography (L-R) Alastair Smeaton, Divisional Librarian; Alan Breen, Press Offi cer, Dublin City Council; Margaret Hayes, Dublin City Librarian; Jane Alger, Director Dublin UNESCO City of Literature; Veronica Ryan, Dublin City Libraries and Cathy McKenna, Award Administrator, Dublin City Libraries. Jason Clarke Photography Jason Clarke Photography Jason Clarke Photography Alastair Smeaton, Master of Ceremonies, Colum McCann, Jane Alger, Director, Dublin Margaret Hayes, Dublin City Librarian and Dublin, June 2011. UNESCO City of Literature pictured in the Chair of the Award Committee. Mansion House.

DUBLIN – THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION

Books in Translation

ISSN 1393-8908

Th e International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, an initiative of Dublin City Contact us Council, is a partnership between Dublin City Council, the municipal government authority of Ireland’s capital city and IMPAC, a company committed to productivity International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award improvement, operating in over 50 countries world-wide. Dublin City Library & Archive 138-144 Pearse Street Patron of the Award: Th e Lord Mayor of Dublin Ireland Fiction Matters, the newsletter of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, Telephone: + 353 1 674 4802 / 1 is an occasional publication issued at least once a year. Facsimile: + 353 1 674 4879 E-mail: [email protected] © Dublin City Public Libraries 2012 Web: www.impacdublinaward.ie