IMPAC Dublin Shortlist Announced

After a bit of a break while I settled into a new job, I am happy to be back into blogging and have a lot of new ideas for regular features which I will roll out over the next few weeks. To kick things off again though I am excited to see the announcement of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award shortlist. This award always attracts my attention as it is open to books from any country as long as they were published within a particular year. The 2012 award, for example, is open to any book published in, or translated into, English between 1 January and 31 December 2010. Books are nominated by participating libraries from all over the world and are to be “of high literary merit”. This year’s shortlist is as follows:

1. Rocks in the Belly by Jon Bauer (British / Australian). Scribe Publications (First Novel)
2. The Matter with Morris by David Bergen (Canadian). Harper Collins, Canada
3. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (American) Alfred A. Knopf
4. The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Born in Britain, raised in Sierra Leone) Bloomsbury Publishing
5. Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor (British) Bloomsbury
6. Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes (American) Atlantic Monthly Press (First novel)
7. Landed by Tim Pears (British) William Heinemann
8. Limassol by Yishai Sarid (Israeli) translated from Hebrew by Barbara Harshav Europa Editions
9. The Eternal Son by Cristovão Tezza, (Brazilian) translated from Portuguese by Alison Entrekin, Scribe Publications
10. Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin (American) Faber & Faber

I’ve read A Visit From The Goon Squad and am intending on reading The Memory of Love for Sierra Leone but the rest of these are now new gems for me to explore. I am particularly interested in reading The Eternal Son as that seems to have swept every literary award in Brazil. Would be keen to know if anyone has read it or any of the books on this list.

In the meantime, I am busily working my way through several books at once, hence the delay in posting a review! Currently reading An Dangerous Method by John Kerr (which I may count for Switzerland); Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday and A Golden Age by Tahmima Amam set in Bangladesh. All wonderful so far…

The Literary Nomad xx

One Response to “IMPAC Dublin Shortlist Announced”

1. markbooks says:

   April 19, 2012 at 3:09 pm

   Hi, I’ve read Lean On Pete, which is wonderful. Delicate, low-fi Americana. I’ve got a review on my blog.