THREE IRISH BOOKS  are in the running for the world’s most valuable literary prize.

The nominees for the longlist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award have been announced this morning, with Emma Donoghue’s ‘Room’ receiving more nominations than any other book.

The other two Irish nominees are Paul Murray for ‘Skippy Dies’ and Tana French for ‘Faithful Place’.

There are 147 books on the longlist which was made up of nominations from libraries in 122 cities around the world.  ’Room’ received 20 nominations, making it one of the most nominated titles in the seventeen years since the award was first announced in 1996.

The Irish novels will face tough competition from a strong list of nominees, including ‘A Visit from the Goon Squad’ by Jennifer Egan, which won a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year, ‘The Memory of Love’ by Animatta Forna, winner of the 2011 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, and ‘Cool Water’ by Dianne Warren, winner of the Governor General’s Award for Fiction 2010 in Canada.

The winner of the €100,000 prize, the world’s most valuable annual literary prize for a single work of fiction published in English, will be announced by the Dublin Lord Mayor on 13 June next year.