FIVE NZ WRITERS MAKE IMPAC AWARD LONGLIST

Report from Irish Times:
Impac list shows worldwide vitality of fiction

Library readers of the world have presented judges with exciting choices, including novels by four Irish writers, a huge range of works in translation, and a strong US representation, writes EILEEN BATTERSBY

SEVERAL OF the finest novels published in the world in recent years have been nominated by an international panel of libraries for this year’s International Impac Dublin Literary Award.

The longlist, which is announced this morning, is the most exciting in the €100,000 award’s history.

Featured among the 156 titles, many of the strongest of which are in English translation, are four Irish writers including Sebastian Barry with his Costa prize-winning The Sacred Scripture , Deirdre Madden for Molly Fox’s Birthday , David Parks for The Truth Commissioner and Joseph O’Neill for Netherland .

Book-buying may have declined in these recessionary times but books are certainly being read, libraries are sustaining readers and making a breathtaking range of titles available; gifted translators are apparently working overtime; and readers are not only reading, they are reading the best writers in the world. Siberian Andrei Makine, who writes in French, has been nominated for Human Love, and 1998 Nobel Laureate José Saramago features for Death with Interruptions .

On its own, the nomination of two major Chinese writers – Jiang Rong for his stark, autobiographical Wolf Totem , which laments the death of an ancient culture; and Ma Jian, for Beijing Coma – testifies to the importance of this year’s longlist.

Veteran American master Phillip Roth has been nominated for Indignation , while 1993 Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s A Mercy , a prologue of sorts to Beloved (1988), is included. A little piece of award history has been made with the inclusion of husband and wife Paul Auster and Siri Husvelt.

Possibly the most favoured of the US entries is Pulitzer prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson of Gilead , who is nominated for Home, a novel which has a vast international readership. Canadian original Kenneth J Harvey should impress the judges with Blackstrap Hawco , a daring extravaganza of voices about a Newfoundland family.

The Australians are well represented by the invariably inventive Peter Carey for His Illegal Self ; Geraldine Brooks is a strong contender with Peoples of the Book , a complex historical narrative based on a true story; while Helen Garner’s The Spare Room , a compelling account of a frenzied death as watched by an exasperated friend, the narrator, features as does Steve Toltz’s Booker-shortlisted debut, A Fraction of the Whole , in which a son recalls an unusual father.Tasmanian Richard Flanagan is deservedly nominated for Wanting , a beautiful book exploring colonial brutality.

The 1994 Booker prize winner, Scottish writer James Kelman, would be expected to make the shortlist with his majestic performance, Kieron Smith, Boy, yet this will be a tough shortlist to select. Promising English newcomer Ross Raison is longlisted for In God’s Own Country , while the 2008 Impac winner, Rawi Hage, is again nominated, this time for Cockroach .

Indian fiction is well represented by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s dazzling yarn, The Palace of Illusions , which makes inspired use of the legends of the Mahabharata. The ethereal Pakistani-born, London-based Nadeem Aslam, who was Impac shortlisted with Maps for Lost Lovers in 2006 when Colm Tóibín won, has been nominated for The Wasted Vigil , a strong novel as beautiful as it is important – a potential challenger.

But where Impac has tended to triumph, and could well do so again this year, is by showcasing the best of international fiction in translation. The readers of the world’s participating libraries have presented the judges with a magnificent list of world-class contenders. The onus is now on that panel to select quality finalists reflective of this extraordinary longlist.

Read the full list of 156 here.