The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award has unveiled its massive 2012 longlist. Recall that libraries around the world can nominate books for the prize, and these nominations, taken together, comprise the longlist. This year there are 147 novels on the list, nominated by 122 libraries in 45 countries. All of the books must have been published in English in 2010 (including translations).
Because of the award’s global reach and egalitarian process, it’s always interesting to dig deeper into the longlist. Taken as a whole, the literary proclivities of various countries become evident, and a few titles recur again and again, revealing which books have made a global impact on readers.
Overall favorites: books that were nominated by at least seven libraries.
Room by Emma Donoghue (20 libraries representing Australia, England, France, Ireland, the Maldives, New Zealand, and the United States)
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (13 libraries representing Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States)
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (12 libraries representing Canada, England, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, and the United States)
To the End of the Land by David Grossman (10 libraries representing Brazil, Canada, Germany, and the United States)
Purge by Sofi Oksanen (8 libraries representing Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland)
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes (7 libraries representing the Czech Republic, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United States)
You can also look at the list and see which books are favorites in different countries. Several books were nominated by multiple libraries in the same country. Here’s a few:
In Canada, Annabel by Kathleen Winter
In Germany, Fame by Daniel Kehlmann
In Ireland, Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
In the Netherlands, Counterpoint by Anna Enquist and The Book Club by Marjolijn Februari
There were also several countries with only one library nominating just one or two books. Here are a few of those:
From Bermuda, Gorée: Point of Departure by Angela Barry
From Cyprus, A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible by Christy Lefteri
From Hungary, One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni
From India, Serious Men by Manu Joseph
From Japan, The Book of Heroes by Miyuki Miyabe
Glad to see The Slap on the list. I’ve been hyping this novel everywhere. Hopefully this will win it the readership it deserves.
Great to see The Slap – very good.
Tom McCarthy. Well, he’s the hot media thing right now and I’ve not read C yet, but I did read Remainder and thought it was an interesting idea very very badly executed. Not sure he deserves to be in.
David Mitchell. Ignored for too long, he should have won in back in ’99 when Ghostwritten came out – his last one and this one are poor efforts compared to his other stuff. hmm..
Completely agree with Simon regarding McCarthy and Remainder.
Great to see Galgut nominated (again?). Love his work, wish it were published with greater speed here in the US. Lags almost like a translation would. Highly recommend The Good Doctor.
In time-honored fashion, I haven’t read a single book on the longlist. I guess I get to the Mitchell sooner and the Carey later and whoever wins the whole thing in due course.
I was disappointed enough by Solar not to mind its omission, but I’m almost finished The Pregnant Widow and I can’t believe there are 12 more satisfying works published this year.
I love Damon Galgut. I’m fairly certain and excerpt of this new novel ran in the Paris Review a year or so ago. The Good Doctor was very good. I think Rose Tremain is pretty great, too.
Delighted to see Alan Warner on there actually, I reckon he’s very underrated. Morvern Callar is one of my favourite books of all time.
Looks like your “unveiling” link is off by one year. Should point here: http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1427
Fixed that link. Thanks Peter.
A historical novel won last year, so that may hurt Mitchell and Carey. I expect the winner to be one of the lesser known authors. (The Mitchell and Carey are both on my to-be-read piles.)