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Thursday, June 22, 2017

2017 International Dublin Literary Award

José Eduardo Agualusa is the winner of the International Dublin Literary Award 2017 for his book A General Theory of Oblivion. 


A woman bricks herself into her flat on the eve of Angolan independence, only to emerge 28 years later. Ludovica Fernandes Mano, a Portuguese expatriate, fears for her fate in the newly independent African state, so instead chooses to live in isolation for three decades, only experiencing the outside world through snippets of neighbours’ conversations, a window and a radio that gradually dies, as she distils all she sees into diaries, and later on the walls of her apartment.



The author plans to build a library in his adopted home on the Island of Mozambique.  “What we really need is a public library, because people don’t have access to books, so if I can do something to help that, it will be great,” Agualusa says. “We have already found a place and I can put my own personal library in there and open it to the people of the island. It’s been a dream for a long time” (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/21/angolan-jose-eduardo-agualusa-wins-100000-impac-dublin-prize-general-history-of-oblivion?CMP=twt_books_b-gdnbooks).

The International DUBLIN Literary Award is worth €100,000 ($143,300 CAN) and is the world’s most valuable annual literary award for a single work of fiction.  The Award is presented annually for a novel written in English or translated into English.  Nominations are made by library systems in major cities throughout the world.  Established in 1994, the Award is now wholly funded by Dublin City Council.

The longlist had 147 titles:  http://www.dublinliteraryaward.ie/.

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