The Dublin Literary Award is the world’s only award for which books can only be nominated by libraries and librarians from around the world. The award honors books published during a calendar year that comes a year and a half prior to the prize announcement (e.g. the prize that will be announced in June 2018 will honor a book published in 2016); among other things, this gives librarians time to see which recent books are most in favor among their patrons, making this in a sense a reader’s award. It’s also one of the most generous awards out there, carrying a purse of €100,000 (€25,000 of which goes to the translator if the book in question is a translation). Nine of the 22 previous winners of the award have been works in translation – excellent odds! The award is sponsored by the Dublin City Council and the municipal government of Dublin, and administered by Dublin City Public Libraries. I’m particularly delighted to see that nearly one third of the books on this year’s longlist of 150 books (yes, possibly the world’s longest longlist) are works in translation. The longlist in this case is in fact the list of all the books nominated by the 400 library systems in 177 countries participating in this year’s award. The first culling will come when the 10 book shortlist is announced in April.
Here are the 48 works in translation from this year’s longlist (you’ll find the complete longlist on the Dublin Literary Award website).
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman, translated from the original Swedish by Henning Koch
The Young Bride by Alessandro Baricco, translated from the original Italian by Ann Goldstein
Seven Days in August by Brit Bildøen, translated from the original Norwegian by Becky L. Crook
Baba Dunja’s Last Love by Alina Bronsky, translated from the original German by Tim Mohr
This Too Shall Pass by Milena Busquets, translated from the original Spanish by Valerie Miles
Don’t Tell Me You’re Afraid by Giuseppe Catozzella, translated from the original Italian by Anne Milano Appel
Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue, translated from the original Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
The Island of Books by Dominique Fortier, translated from the original French by Rhonda Mullins
Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, translated from the original Hebrew by Sondra Silverston
This House is Mine by Dörte Hansen, translated from the original German by Anne Stokes
Where Love Begins by Judith Hermann, translated from the original German by Margot Bettauer Dembo
The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera, translated from the original Spanish by Lisa Dillman
War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans, translated from the original Dutch by David McKay
The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen, translated from the original Norwegian by Don Bartlett & Don Shaw
Human Acts by Han Kang, translated from the original Korean by Deborah Smith
Almost Everything Very Fast by Christopher Kloeble, translated from the original German by Aaron Kerner
One of Us is Sleeping by Josefine Klougart, translated from the original Danish by Martin Aitken
Dear Mr. M by Herman Koch, translated from the original Dutch by Sam Garrett
Two Gentlemen on the Beach by Michael Köhlmeier, translated from the original German by Ruth Martin
None Like Her by Jela Krečič, translated from the original Slovene by Olivia Hellewell
The Party Wall by Catherine Leroux, translated from the original French by Lazer Lederhendler
Death in Sunset Grove by Minna Lindgren, translated from the original Finnish by Lola Rogers
The Shelf Life of Happiness by David Machado, translated from the original Portuguese by Hillary Locke
Thus Bad Begins by Javier Marías, translated from the original Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa
Bricks and Mortar by Clemens Meyer, translated from the original German by Katy Derbyshire
Distant Light by Antonio Moresco, translated from the original Italian by Richard Dixon
Ladivine by Marie Ndiaye, translated from the original French by Jordan Stump
Judas by Amos Oz, translated from the original Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange
La Superba by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, translated from the original Dutch by Michele Hutchison
The Attempt by Magdaléna Platzová, translated from the original Czech by Alex Zucker
Sergio Y. by Alexandre Vidal Porto, translated from the original Portuguese by Alex Ladd
The Hill by Ivica Prtenjača, translated from the original Croatian by Tomislav Kuzmanović
The Bird Tribunal by Agnes Ravatn, translated from the original Norwegian by Rosie Hedger
Cry, Mother Spain by Lydie Salvayre, translated from the original French by Ben Faccini
Panorama by Dušan Šarotar, translated from the original Slovene by Rawley Grau
The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler, translated from the original German by Charlotte Collins
Ma Belle by Maja Herman Sekulić, translated from the original Serbian by Persida Bošković
Why Did You Lie? by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir, translated from the original Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo, translated from the original Finnish by Lola Rogers
Moonstone: the boy who never was by Sjón, translated from the original Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
Fish Have No Feet by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated from the original Icelandic by Philip Roughton
Estoril by Dejan Tiago-Stanković, translated from the original Serbian by Christina Pribichevich Zorić
Reputations by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, translated from the original Spanish by Anne McLean
The Man I Became by Peter Verhelst, translated from the original Dutch by David Colmer
The Latecomer by Dimitri Verhulst, translated from the original Dutch by David Colmer
I’ll Sell You a Dog by Juan Pablo Villalobos, translated from the original Spanish by Rosalind Harvey
A Beautiful Young Wife by Tommy Wieringa, translated from the original Dutch by Sam Garrett
Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra, translated from the original Spanish by Megan McDowell
Wishing all the longlisted translators the best of luck for also making the shortlist! Check back in April to see how that went.