EIGHT NOVELS BY Irish writers have made the longlist for the world’s most valuable annual literary prize.
However the books will face stiff competition – a total of 154 books have been nominated by libraries around the world for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, including Booker winner The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.
The €100,000 prize is the largest prize money given for a single work of fiction published in English each year.
The eight Irish nominees – the highest ever number of nominees from Ireland, easily beating last year’s record of three – include Sebastian Barry, Kevin Barry, Christine Dwyer Hickey and John Boyne.
Almost one third of the 154 books on the longlist are first novels. The nominated books are written in 19 languages and come from 44 countries around the world.
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes received the most nominations of any book with a total of fifteen nominations. The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht and The Sisters Brothers by Patrick de Witt also received multiple nominations. Haruki Murakami is nominated for 1Q84 while Umberto Eco and Ingo Schulze are also on the longlist. The full list of nominees can be seen on the IMPAC Dublin Award website.
The award is organised by Dublin city libraries on behalf of Dublin City Council, with libraries around the world nominating books for the prize. Jon McGregor won the 2012 prize for his novel Even the Dogs.
“This is the highest number of Irish authors ever to be nominated in any one year,” said Margaret Hayes, Dublin City Librarian. “It says a lot for the high quality of writing coming from Irish writers currently and it reinforces Dublin’s status as UNESCO City of Literature”.
The shortlist will be announced on 9 April and the winner will be revealed by the Dublin Lord Mayor on 13 June next year.
The eight Irish nominees:
Sebastian Barry – On Canaan’s Side
Kevin Barry – City of Bohane
John Boyne – The Absolutist
Paul Callan – The Dulang Washer
Dermot Healy – Long Time, No See
Christine Dwyer Hickey – The Cold Eye of Heaven
Margaret Mazzantini – Twice Born
Patrick Warner – Double Talk
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