ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

Twelve books by Australian authors and three by New Zealand authors have been longlisted for the 2020 International Dublin Literary Award.

I’ve read and reviewed about half of the Australian titles:

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• Flames by Robbie Arnott, see my review
• The Making of Martin Sparrow by Peter Cochrane
• Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
• A Stolen Season by Rodney Hall, see my review
• The Lost Man by Jane Harper
• Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko, see my review
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, see my review
• Shell by Kristina Olsson, see my review
• The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
• The Lucky Galah by Tracy Sorensen, see my review
• The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton
• Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

I’ve read and reviewed all three of the New Zealand titles:

• This Mortal Boy by Fiona Kidman, see my review
• The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke by Tina Makereti, see my review
• All This By Chance by Vincent O’Sullivan, see my review

The longlist comprises156 books, nominated by libraries from 40 countries. There are 50 translated titles and 51 debut novels. The book that received the most nominations this year was Tommy Orange’s There There.

The shortlist will be announced on 2 April 2020 and the winner on 10 June.  The prize is worth €100,000 (A$157,760).

For more information, visit the award’s website.

I don’t like to criticise the organisers of this award because it seems like a ginormous task for a library to undertake, but alas, this year, they have not published a copiable list, much less a sortable one, only a web page of book covers.  I have done my best to harvest this list, but it’s a work in progress.  Translators names have (at the time of writing) only been included when they were named on the cover of the book, and many names should be spelled with diacritics… so I would appreciate advice about any information that needs to be added or corrections that need to be made.   I’m also aware that I may have missed Australian or New Zealand writers if I’m not familiar with their names, so please don’t hesitate to let me know if there are more than the 15 I’ve identified.

Nominees from elsewhere around the world.  (I have kept the Aussies and Kiwis in this list (in Italics) to keep the numbering correct, but links to my reviews for those are in my lists above.)

1. A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
2. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
3. A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better by Benjamin Wood
4. A Stolen Season by Rodney Hall
5. All the Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy
6. All This by Chance by Vincent O’Sullivan
7. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
8. An Image in a Mirror by Ijangolet Ogwang
9. The Orphan’s War by Molly Green
10. Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday
11. Begotten Not Made by Conal Creedon
12. Berta Isla by Javier Marias, on my TBR
13. Bird Cottage by Ava Meijer
14. Bitter Orange by Claire Fuiller
15. Blue Jewellery by Kalharna Winker
16. Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
17. Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak
18. Brother in Ice by Alicia Kopf
19. Burning Cities by Kai Aarelid
20. Catching the Light by Susan Sinnott
21. Children of God by Lars Petter Sveen
22. Circe by Madeline Miller, see my review
23. Comemadre by Roque Larraqut
24. Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg
25. Convenience Store Women by Sayuka Murata
26. Damnation by Peter Beck
27. Disoriental by Negar Djavadi, see my review
28. Don’t Skip Out on me by Willy Vlautin
29. Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
30. Elefant by Martin Suter
31. Eternal life by Dara Horn
32. Flames by Robbie Arnott
33. Fox by Dubravka Ugresic
34. Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, see my review
35. French Exit by Patrick deWitt
36. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi, see my review
37. Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
38. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
39. Hanumans Travels by Andrei Ivanov
40. History of Violence by Edouard Louis
41. Hotel Silence by Audur Ava Olafsdottir
42. Immigrant Montana by Amitav Kumar
43. In Half by Jasmin B Frelih translated by Jason Blake
44. Insurrecto by Gina Apostol
45. Jasmine Days by Benyamin, translated by Shahnaz Habib, see my review
46. Killing Commendatore by Murakami
47. Kudos by Rachel Cusk
48. Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart
49. Latitudes of Longing by Shubhamngi Swarup
50. Letters to God by Norharsah Hamid
51. Little by Edward Carey
52. Lullaby by Leile Slimani
53. Matei Brunul by Lucian Dan Teodorovici
54. Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
55. Middle England by Jonathan Coe, see my review
56. Milkman by Anna Burns, on my TBR
57. My Father was a Man on Land and a Whale in the Water by Michelle Steinbeck translated by Jess Calleja
58. My German Brother by Chico Buarque
59. My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
60. My Year of Rest and Relaxation, by Otessa Moshfegh
61. Name of the Dog, by Elmer Mendoza
62. Nameless Serenade by Maurizo de Giovanni
63. Normal People by Sally Rooney
64. Ohio by Stephen Markley
65. OK, Mr Field, by Katharine Kilalea
66. Oneiron by Laura Lindstedt
67. Oraefi the Wasteland by Ofeigur Sigurdsson translated by Lytton Smith
68. Orchid and the Wasp by Caolinn Hughes
69. Painter to the Kind by Amy Sackville
70. Peach by Emma Glass
71. Piranhas by Roberto Saviano, translated from the Italian by Antony Shugaar
72. Pobeda 1946, a Car Called Victory by Ilmar Taska
73. Prague Spring by Simon Mawer, on my TBR
74. Resin by Ane Riel
75. Resistance by Julian Fuks, translated by Daniel Hahn
76. River, by Esther Kinsky, translated from the German by Iain Galbraith
77. Second Chinese Daughter by Shirley Fung
78. Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon
79. Severance by Ling Ma
80. Shell by Kristina Olssen
81. Sight, by Jessie Greengrass
82. Skin Deep by Liz Nugent
83. Small Country by Gael Faye
84. Sonka by Ignacy Karpowicz, translated from the Polish by Maya Zakrzewska-Pim
85. Sophia, or the Beginning of All Tales by Rafik Schami, translated from the German by Monique Arav & John Hannon
86. Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala
87. Story of a Marriage, by Geir Gulliksen
88. Take Nothing with You by Patrick Gale
89. Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams
90. The Arid Sky by Emiliano Monge, translated by Thumas Dunstead
91. The Art of White Roses by Viviana Prado-Nunez
92. The Best of Kukuyo by Kevin jared Hosein
93. The Boat People by Sharon Bala
94. The Book of M, by Peng Shepherd
95. The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti
96. The End of Loneliness, by Benedict Wells
97. The End of Sunset Grove, by Minna Lindgren
98. The Ensemble by Aka Gabel
99. The Farm, by Héctor Abad, translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean
100. The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
101. The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White
102. The Gold Diggers, by Sue Nyathi
103. The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah
104. The Great Believers, byu Rebecca Makkai
105. The Great Fall, by Peter Handke
106. The Gunners, by Rebecca Kauffman
107. The Hoarder, by Jess Kidd
108. The Hum of the Sun, by Kirsten Miller
109. The Ice Shelf by Anne Kennedy
110. The Imaginary Lives of James Poneke by Tina Makereti
111. The Language of Birds by Norbert Scheuer, translated by Stephen Brown
112. The Last of Our Kind, by Adelaide de Clermont-Tonnerre
113. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
114. The Lost Man by Jane Harper
115. The Lucky Galah by Tracy Sorensen
116. The Luminous Sea by Melissa Barbeau
117. The Making of Martin Sparrow, by Peter Cochrane
118. The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, by Imogen Hermes Gowar
119. The Ones with Purpose, by Nozizwe Cynthia Jele
120. The Only Story by Julian Barnes, on my TBR
121. The Overstory, by Richard powers
122. The Perfect family, by Shalini Boland
123. The Plotters by Un Su Kim, translated from the Korean by Sora Kim-Russell
124. The Red Word, by Sarah Henstra
125. The Sacco Gang, by Andrea Camilleri
126. The Saturday Night Ghost Club, by Craig Davidson
127. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
128. The Shepherd’s Hut, by Tim Winton, on my TBR
129. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, on my TBR
130. The Taiga Syndrome, by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated from the Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine & Aviva Kana
131. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
132. The Toymakers, by Robert Dinsdale
133. The Trick to Time, by Kit de Wal
134. The Waiter, by Matias Faldbakken
135. The Water Cure, by Sophie Mackintosh
136. The Western Wind, by Samantha Harvey
137. The Woman in the Woods, by John Connolly
138. Theory of Bastards, by Audrey Schulman
139. There, There by Tommy Orange, see my review
140. This Mortal Boy, by Fiona Kidman
141. Too Much Lip, by Melissa Lucashenko
142. Transcription, by Kate Atkinson
143. Transparent City by Ondjaki
144. Travelling in a Strange Land by David Park
145. Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver
146. Virgil Wander, by Leif Enger
147. Vox, by Christina Dalcher
148. Waiting for Tomorrow by Nathacha Appanah
149. Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje
150. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan, on my TBR
151. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
152. Where the Dead Sit Talking, by Brandon Hobson
153. Woman at 1000 degrees, by Hallgrimer Helgason
154. Woman at Sea, by Catherine Poulain
155. Woman of the Ashes by Mia Couto, translated by David Brooksman
156. Woman Talking, a Novel, by Miriam Toews