Dutch gardener reaps Impac prize

Gerbrand Bakker's 'wonderful' debut novel, set on a bleak farm, has beaten established authors to clinch the world's biggest literary prize, of €100,000

Alison Flood, guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 June 2010

 A "restrained, sparely written" debut novel by a Dutch author and part-time gardener has beaten Marilynne Robinson's Orange prize-winning Home and Joseph O'Neill's Booker-longlisted Netherland to win the world's richest book prize, the International Impac Dublin literary award.

Gerbrand Bakker's The Twin (Boven is het stil), in which protagonist Helmer is forced to return to his family's small farm in the bleak Dutch countryside after his twin brother dies in a car accident, was named winner of the €100,000 Impac prize in Dublin this evening. The award is unique in that public libraries around the world nominate titles they think should win – The Twin was proposed by libraries in Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Eindhoven – after which an international judging panel select the winner, this year from a shortlist of eight.

In Dublin to receive his prize, Bakker said he "had to lie down for a while" after hearing that he'd won the award. "It's wonderful," he said. "But for me it was also wonderful to read the book in English – I said to David [Colmer] the translator: 'Who wrote this book?' I didn't recognise it, I thought it was very good. It made me realise it really is a book, and I am a writer." The €100,000 (£83,000) award money will be divided between Bakker and Colmer, with Colmer receiving €25,000.
Full report at The Guardian.