International Dublin Literary Award (formerly IMPAC Prize) > Likes and Comments
The great thing about this prize is that it treats translated and original English books on the same terms, I think uniquely in major literary prizes in Europe. (No doubt I will be corrected),Rather an odd and lengthy nomination process, involving nominations from libraries around the world, which means a) the longlist is a little eclectic b) the prize is rather delayed. Indeed to be eligible for the "2016" prize a book has to be published in English in 2014 and oddly it also has to have been published in the original language between 2010-2014.
But the process does ultimately turn out a pretty impressive list of of winners.
Looking back, I've read 21 of the 28 winners to date (not read 2001, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2022). I'd rank them as follows, with the top 7 all excellent books and only really one stinker (De Niro's Game).
1 A Heart so White (1997)
2 Out Stealing Horses (2007)
3 Milkman (2020)
4 Lost Children Archive (2021)
5 Solar Bones (2018)
6 The Twin (2010)
7 My Name is Red (2003)
8 Harvest (2015)
9 Ingenious Pain (1999)
10 Atomised (2002)
11 Wide Open (2000)
12 A General Theory of Oblivion (2017)
13 City of Bohane (2013)
14 Marzahn, Mon Amour (2023)
15 Remembering Babylon (1996)
16 Idaho (2019)
17 The Sound of Things Falling (2014)
18 The Land of Green Plums (1998)
19 Family Life (2016)
20 The Master (2006)
21 De Niro's Game (2008)
Updated above for the 2016 winner, Family Life. Just didn't work for me - although it also won the Folio Prize, so I suspect the emphasis is on "for me" and others would get more out of it.
I have only read 9 of them - as with so many prizes, the ones I know include some fairly strange choices - my ordered list is:1 My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
2 Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
3 Harvest by Jim Crace
4 A Heart So White by Javier Marias
5 The Master by Colm Tóibín
6 Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor
7 Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller
8 The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker
9 The Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller
Let's see, I've read . . . wow, more than I thought! And I've got A Heart So White in my "I hope to read this soon" (IHRTS) pile. Here's how I would place the seven I've read:1. No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
2. The Master by Colm Tóibín
3. The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker
4. Harvest by Jim Crace
5. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
6. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
7. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
The only one I was really so-so on is Let the Great World Spin, and I liked it just fine. That means I've been quite happy with this prize, even though I've never particularly followed it!
Paul, I didn't know you thought so poorly of The Master! It's been years since I read it, but it's one of my highlights from a significant Booker year for me.
Trevor wrote: "Let's see, I've read . . . wow, more than I thought! And I've got A Heart So White in my "I hope to read this soon" (IHRTS) pile. Here's how I would place the seven I've read:1. No Great Mischief..."
Years since I read the Master and can't remember much but I rank all the books I read in a year and it is a fair way down the list.
Though I understand all reasons not to rank things, I like the exercise. It forces me to really evaluate the books in a way I normally don't. I've never tried to rank the books I've read in a year . . . but I'm going to now!
The longlist - and it is very long - for the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award is out. Actually more a list of nominated books from libraries around the world.http://www.dublinliteraryaward.ie/nom...
Pretty solid list of the best books of 2015 with almost too many possible winners to list. So e.g. we have this year's Booker winner (unusually as its for 2015 published books) plus 3 of the 2015 shortlist, the 2015 Goldsmiths Prize winner, books from past Booker legends like Banville, Ishiguro and Rushdie and 43 books in translation including works from the BTBA and MBI lists.
The real action starts in April when the shortlist comes out - unless anyone really feels like shadowing the jury and reading all 147 books from the longlist!
What a great list. How long is the shortlist? This isn't an award I've followed before but lots on that list I'd be happy to read. I've read 24 of them and am in the middle of The Sympathizer so will be 25.
Amanda wrote: "What a great list. How long is the shortlist? This isn't an award I've followed before but lots on that list I'd be happy to read. I've read 24 of them and am in the middle of The Sympathizer so wi..."Last year the shortlist was 10 books
18 for me I think of the longlist
I'd love to read the whole longlist but I don't think I can fit that in ;). Will definitely give the shortlist a go.
An entertainingly opinionated look through the list from Eileen Battersby: http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/boo...Sample views - Hot Milk is "glib, overrated" and The Sellout "predictable and cliched", and Margaret Attwood's novels are "invariably fierce and witty, if rarely high art" and she goes on to explain why other, less well known, novels on the list are better in her view.
Shortlist for the 2017 Prize (but actually for books published in 2015):A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk translated by Ekin Oklap.
A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler translated by Charlotte Collins.
A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa, translated by Daniel Hahn
Confession of the Lioness by Mia Couto translated by David Brookshaw.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
The Prophets of Eternal Fjord by Kim Leine translated by Martin Aitken.
The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli translated by Christina MacSweeney
The Green Road by Anne Enright
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta.
A strong looking list although as with the recent Folio Prize quite a lot of overlap with other prizes, notably 3 from the 2016 MBI list, 2 from the 2015 Booker and a Pulitzer winner.
More forgivable for the Impac though as it’s methodology means it gets to books much later than other prizes, and we do get to see translated and non-translated fiction competing head to head.
I have read the first 5 listed of which the Pamuk book is my favourite, I will read the winner (if I haven’t already) but not all of the shortlist as I am a little awarded-out at present.
But I am intrigued by The Prophets of Eternal Fjord as it is the one translated book I hadn't come across - and it got 5 stars on Winstonsdad's blog https://winstonsdad.wordpress.com/201... and won the Nordic Literature Prize (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_...)
I've read six. Strangeness in My Mind may be the strongest, and I also especially enjoyed A Whole Life and A General Theory of Oblivion. For me, one advantage of the Impac methodology is that all of the shortlisted books are readily available in my local library network.
I have only read The Green Road and The Sympathizer, but A Strangeness in my Mind is on my physical to-read shelf (I must admit it has been there a while, and its size makes it rather intimidating). A General Theory of Oblivion was already on my radar, and some of the others look intriguing (I don't fancy reading A Little Life though - my little life is too short).
Hugh wrote: "I have only read The Green Road and The Sympathizer, but A Strangeness in my Mind is on my physical to-read shelf (I must admit it has been there a while, and its size makes it rather intimidating)..."Good choices there, Hugh. A Strangeness in My Mind is long but compelling and memorable. After having read A Little Life, I endorse avoiding it.
Eileen Battersby's take on the shortlist, well-informed and opinionated as usual. She sees it as The Sympathizer vs. The Prophets of Eternal Fjord, with Green Road as the home favourite.https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/bo...
Paul wrote: "Eileen Battersby's take on the shortlist, well-informed and opinionated as usual. She sees it as The Sympathizer vs. The Prophets of Eternal Fjord, with Green Road as the home favourite.https://w..."
I take heart and delight in Battersby's pithy and fluid, error-free prose - a rarity. If only others "writing" for public consumption were interested foremost in producing a polished product.
Ctb wrote: "Paul wrote: "Eileen Battersby's take on the shortlist, well-informed and opinionated as usual. She sees it as The Sympathizer vs. The Prophets of Eternal Fjord, with Green Road as the home favourit..."She is a class apart amongst literary journalists, at least this side of the Atlantic.
I know you've read The Sympathizer - do you share her views?
I have read 5 of the list. Some of them - A Little Life, The Green Road and A Whole LifeI would rank as among the most disappointing novels I have read in the last 18 months or so, as none for me lived up to their considerable literary hype.
A General Theory of Oblivion was one of my rare 1* ratings.
My favourite of those I have read is by far A Strangeness in My Mind - although I am biased here as I travelled to Istanbul on business several times over the last few years and rank it as my favourite city.
I have not read The Sympathiser but I read The Refugees recently and thought it was excellent despite it being of a genre (short stories) that I don't enjoy. It seems The Sympathiser has very similar themes and settings but in a novel form so that looks a definite read. I will also try those of the others I can source from my local library.
I recently started The Prophets of the Eternal Fjord: an intriguing beginning and I'm eager to read more.I read both Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer and The Refugees. I found parts of The Sympathizer interesting and parts tiresome, and I much preferred Refugees.
I'm hoping to read Confessions of the Lioness, The Story of My Teeth, and Under the Udala Tree, all of which I've been borrowed from our local library network.
A 500 plus page novel about a Norwegian pastor set in late eighteenth century Norway, Denmark, and Greenland normally would not interest me. And if Prophets of Eternal Fjord hadn’t been shortlisted for the DLA, I doubt that I would have heard of it: a quick Google search reveals little critical attention in the U.S. and the U.K. PEF feels too long at times, it’s easy to lose track of some minor characters, and it’s a bit of a soap opera. But despite these caveats, PEF is a remarkable work of imagination, absorbing, and transporting, although some readers may not want to be transported to where Leine takes them. Of those that I’ve read, my current rankings are:
1. A Strangeness in My Mind
2. The Green Road (last read in 2015, and plan to reread soon)
3. Prophets of Eternal Fjord
4. Under the Udala Trees
5. A Whole Life
6. A General Theory of Oblivion
7. The Sympathizer
8. The Story of My Teeth
9. A Little Life
My rankings of Pamuk, Enright, and Leine feel firm to me, as does Yanagihara. The ranks that I assigned to the others feel a bit random to me right now.
I started Confession of the Lioness: it's not to my taste, and will remain unfinished for now. Even though the DLA lags a year of two behind publication dates, it’s a pleasure to easily (and inexpensively) access the entire shortlist.
I hate to say it as I like this award, but I am not too taken with this year's list. Too many of them fall into the "mostly harmless" category - I don't dislike any of them but there is nothing really striking and award-winning worthy.1. A Strangeness in My Mind
2. A Little Life
3. Prophets of Eternal Fjord
4. A General Theory of Oblivion
5. The Sympathizer
6. The Green Road
7. Under the Udala Trees
8. Confessions of the Lioness
9. A Whole Life
10. Story of My Teeth
It's telling that my favourite is although good, far from Pamuk's best book. And my 2nd a book I described in my 2015 Booker reviews as "massively flawed, and in many respects I hated it but it does ultimately stand out as the most interesting and powerful novel" which also applies here.
My rather short list:1. The Green Road
2. A Strangeness in My Mind
3. The Sympathizer
Agree with Paul that none of them stand out, in fact there is little to separate all three of them...
I ought to try The Green Road from the rankings above. I hadn't as I tried The Gathering and thought it was pretty dire - felt like it was reverse engineered to win book prizes - is The Green Road better?
If you didn't like The Gathering I wouldn't hold out too much hope - I think the Green Road is subtler but it is quite similar
It felt to me like exactly the sort of book Marlon James was talking about in this article https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
I don't think you would enjoy it Paul.
Gumble's Yard wrote: "I don't think you would enjoy it Paul."Wasn't written in Irish by any chance and translated into English? Or is there a version where someone has translated a translation back to English? Those would help my appreciation.
I don't think you would particularly enjoy it - even if it was translated. I ranked 3rd but only as the standard of competition is so low. As per my comment above when the shortlist was published: I would rank this, Little Life and A Whole Life as among the most disappointing novels I have read in the last 18 months or so, as none for me lived up to their considerable literary hype.
A Little Life and A Whole Life are very different though. One is deliberately written with "everything turned up a little too high"(https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...) and tends to repel as much as it attracts. I can see though its merits on ambition alone and whatever else it is, it isn't mostly harmless.
The other is, to me, a rather simple story, quite well told, but with no seeming substance, and arrived with relatively limited hype.
But it seems to oddly appeal to prize juries. It actually took out another prestigious prize - from translations from German - last month (https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/kul/s...)
I don't undrstand how The Green Road got on so many long/shortlists. It was very good in part (the section set in USA when Aids was beginning to be noticed) but overall I thought it lacked the pizzazz I expect from an award winner.
Well if the Gathering was any guide, it felt like it had been reverse engineered to win prizes.
Here's my order (of the ones that I have read)1. A Little Life
2. The Green Road
3. Under the Udala Trees
4. A General Theory of Oblivion
5. The Sympathizer
I feel a dynamic ranking coming on.....[see below for update]
Despite the discussion immediately above Green Road comes up very high! Karen have you read enough to add a ranking and help sink it back where it apparently belongs.
Paul wrote: "Despite the discussion immediately above Green Road comes up very high! Karen have you read enough to add a ranking and help sink it back where it apparently belongs."I plan to reread The Green Road within a few weeks, and may ranking of it may change. The Prophets of Eternal Fjord is remaining with me more than Green Road ever did.
To be fair the whole discussion was prompted by my observing how well ranked it was by everyone. Gumble, who knows me rather well given our shared genetic make up, was more opening it would not be to my personal taste.
It was not to my taste either but most of the rest of the list was even weaker in my view.
I've read 7 of these, so my list is:1 The Sympathiser
2 A Strangeness in My Mind
3 The Story of My Teeth
4 A Little Life
5 A General Theory of Oblivion
6 The Green Road
7 A Whole Life
Not sure I will read any of the missing 3, though - there's a few too many books on the pile waiting to be read with more already scheduled to arrive!
Dan wrote: "Paul wrote: Karen have you read enough to add a ranking and help sink it back where it apparently belongs."I plan to rerea..."
I don't think I can really give it a ranking since I've read only two from this list - have more of them in the queue but won't get to them soon
Two is fine. Still then factors in your views.
I was staying out of the ranking process since I have only read three, but in light of Paul's comment, I'm throwing in my three cents' worth:1. A General Theory of Oblivion
2. The Sympathizer
3. A Little Life
Update from me - having read "Confessions of a Lioness". A disappointing read and a 2* book but that still puts it quite a way up given the paucity of the shortlist. Read 9 now - not sure I will read "Eternal Fjord" as my library does not seem to stock it1 A Strangeness in My Mind
2 Prophets of the Eternal Fjord
3 The Sympathizer
4 The Green Road
5 A Little Life
6 Under the Udala Trees
7 Confessions of a Lioness
8 A Whole Life
9 Story of My Teeth
10 A General Theory of Oblivion
As an aside just looking at the (very) longlist my own shortlist would have included four books which I think are better than any on the actual shortlist Dictator, A God in Ruins, The Buried Giant, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights.
Gumble's Yard wrote: "As an aside just looking at the (very) longlist my own shortlist would have included four books which I think are better than any on the actual shortlist.."Yes there are plenty better on the long- than short-list on there. On the translated side it is almost bizarre someone could pick some of those on the shortlist and overlook important novels like The Physics of Sorrow and The Meursault Investigation.
I've only read six and I doubt that I will get to the remaining titles.Here are my rankings from those read.
1. Strangeness in My Mind
2. The Green Road
3. Under the Udala Trees
4. The Sympathizer
5. A Little Life
6. The Story of My Teeth
I have now read:- Prophets of Eternal Fjord (review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), which was enjoyable although not unflawed
and
- Story of My Teeth (review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) which I thought was very superficial
100 pages into Green Road, I'm struggling what elevates this above say a Catherine Cookson novel. With all the wonderful writers coming out of Ireland at the moment - Eimear McBride, Kevin Barry (who to be fair won the 2013 award), Mike McCormack, Lisa McInerney etc- it is rather disappointing that this has been picked to fly the home flag.
Oh, I loved The Green Road. See what you think when you've finished. It definitely builds.
Ang wrote: "Oh, I loved The Green Road. See what you think when you've finished. It definitely builds."I recall you had this top of your list on the 2015 Booker dynamic rankings on the old M&G forum in pre Goodreads days - and A Little Life last I think.
It certainly got better - although ultimately it was OK for me no more https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
That's the list finished for me - and The Green Road slots in at number 6.
Past winners: (work in progress)
1996 Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
1997 A Heart So White by Javier Marias translated by Margaret Jull Costa
1998 The Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller translated by Michael Hofmann
1999 Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller
2000 Wide Open by Nicola Barker
2001 No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
2002 Atomised by Michel Houellebecq translated by Frank Wynne
2003 My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk translated by Erdağ Göknar)
2004 This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun translated by Linda Coverdale
2005 The Known World by Edward P. Jones
2006 The Master by Colm Tóibín
2007 Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson translated by Anne Born
2008 De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage
2009 Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas
2010 The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker translated by David Colmer
2011 Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
2012 Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor
2013 City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
2014 The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez translated by Anne McLean
2015 Harvest by Jim Crace
2016 Family Life by Akil Sharma
2017 A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa translated by Daniel Hahn
2018: Solar Bones by Mike McCormack
2019: Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
2020: Milkman by Anna Burns
2021: Lost Children Archive
2022: The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter / Frank Wynne
2023: Marzahn, mon amour by Katja Oskamp / Jo Heinrich
2024: Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu / Sean Cotter