Established in 1994, the award aims to promote excellence in world literature. Nominees are selected by libraries in major cities worldwide. It is perhaps fitting that this award is sponsored by Dublin because, as a UNESCO City of Literature, the city's literary heritage is a major draw for visitors.
This year's winner will be chosen by a six-member international judging panel chaired by Prof. Chris Morash, the Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing at Trinity College Dublin, and announced by the award's patron, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Caroline Conroy, on 25 May 2023, as part of the International Literature Festival Dublin (ILFD), which is also funded by Dublin City Council.
“The titles on this year’s shortlist were nominated by public libraries in Hungary, Germany, Bosnia, Mexico and the USA," says the Lord Mayor. "The beauty of this award is that it highlights authors and readers worldwide while celebrating excellence in contemporary literature.“
The six shortlisted titles for the award are...
4th Estate
9780008478674
Nominated by the Katona József Library of Bács-Kiskun County, Hungary
What the Judges Say: "The settings may be kaleidoscopic but the characters are wholly engaging, teenagers negotiating similar questions across the centuries: what knowledge do we need for adult life, how can we survive, live well and be good in times of scarcity? Is it safer to fear or to hope? The novel is rooted in libraries, archives and repositories, returning always to the precious cargos of the written word."
Influx Press
9781914391170
Nominated by the Free Library of Philadelphia, U.S.
What the Judges Say: "Ultimately, The Trees emerges as a passionate and unremitting novel about the legacy of racially-inspired hate crimes in the United States, extending beyond African-Americans to Chinese-Americans and Native Americans. Seldom has a writer turned the disturbing power of horror and supernatural fiction to such an urgent purpose than in this compelling novel."
(Translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes)
Fitzcarraldo Editions
9781913097875
Nominated by Biblioteca Daniel Cosío Villegas, Mexico
What the Judges Say: "In fevered, snaking sentences, Fernanda Melchor adopts the point of view of the perpetrators, their compulsive desire for whatever they cannot have. From the first page we know, even when we’d rather not – where it’s all heading, but Melchor’s prose is so mesmerizing that I dare you to let go of the book before its very end."
(Translated from German by Jo Heinrich)
Peirene Press
9781908670694
Nominated by Stadtbüchereien Düsseldorf, Germany
What the Judges Say: "As the novel progresses, we meet character after character as the narrator does, through their feet, and through this slow, deliberate culmination of vignettes, nimbly translated by Jo Heinrich, a greater portrait is achieved, that of how individuals are inevitably shaped by the ever-turning cogs of the machine of history."
(Translated from Croatian by Mima Simić)
V&Q Books
9783863913304
Nominated by the Rijeka City Library, Croatia
What the Judges Say: "[Ivana] Sajko takes no prisoners in her uncompromising and unrelenting story of what goes on between the unnamed couple in a city where the 'system' can grind anyone into a state of despair and panic. ... [The novel] gloriously marries sociopolitical commentary on failed capitalism in a failed state to the inevitability of failed marriage, locating the narrative in an extraordinary violence of mind and body".
(Translated from French by Sheila Fischman)
9781644211151
Seven Stories Press
Nominated by the Hartford Public Library, U.S.
What the Judges Say: "[The novel] is an attempt to salvage something human from what the Vietnamese called the American war. And it is possible to read the book in several ways. As a novel, it reads like a personal essay, its writing precise and its stories provisional as it pieces together fragments of human lives lost on all sides of the conflict. On the other hand, it reads like an epic odyssey through the storms of war in less than 150 pages."
A pity that 912 Batu Road didn't make the shortlist, but with so many titles vying for the prize, getting shortlisted can be quite a long shot. We still hope many of you will give Viji Krishnamoorthy's debut novel a go – who knows, it might turn out to be a winner for you.
Congratulations to the shortlisted nominees! We eagerly await the announcement of the winner on 25 May.
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