August Prize Laureates 2008

Per Olov Enquist received tonight the Swedish August literary award for his novel and autoportrait Ett annat liv (Another life), (Norstedts). This was his second time as August Prize laureate. In the category of non-fiction it was by Paul Duncan & Bengt Wanselius who received the August Prize for Regi Bergman (Bokförlaget Max Ström) about Ingmar Bergman's life long work and achievements. It is a heavy masterpiece!

The August Prize Laureats

The final laureats for the Swedish literary award Augustprisit has been announced.
Fiction: Carl-Henning Wijkmark, for his book on death: "Stundande natten" (Norstedts).
Non-fiction: Bengt Jangfeldt, for the second time. This time it is his book on the Russian poet Majakovskij, entitled "Med livet som insats" (Wahlström & Widstrand).
Children's book: Sven Nordqvist for the book "Var är min syster?" (Opal).
Increased sales to be expected!

Goncourt revisited

Right, I never got back to the final Goncourt laureate. Usually the short lists are most interesting to me, that way you have a list of recommendations to select from yourself according to mood, availability etc. Anyway, Gilles Leroy has been awarded the Goncourt Prize for his «Alabama Song» (Mercure de France), which has 8-folded the number of books available in the bookstores. It doesn't seem to have been an evident choice, however, I learnt it took the jury 14 rounds of voting - yet another reason to pay more attention to the short list than the unique award-winning title.

Goncourt short list

More awards!...the short list of October 2nd for Prix Goncourt 2007 is:
Olivier Adam «A l'abri de rien» (L'Olivier)
Philippe Claudel «Le rapport de Brodeck» (Stock)
Marie Darrieussecq «Tom est mort» (P.O.L.)
Michèle Lesbre «Le canapé rouge» (S. Wespieser)
Clara Dupont-Monod «La passion selon Juette» (Grasset)
Gilles Leroy «Alabama Song» (Mercure de France)
Amélie Nothomb «Ni d'Eve ni d'Adam» (Albin Michel)
Lydie Salvayre «Portrait de l'écrivain en animal domestique» (Seuil)

I'd say that there is the most buzz around Amélie Nothomb, however that says nothing about the decisions of the jury.
To be continued...the 25th of October...

Laureates II

...and the Man Booker Prize 2007 went to the Irish author Anne Enright, for The Gathering.
I quote the site: "The Gathering is a family epic. It is also a sexual history: tracing the line of hurt and redemption through three generations – starting with the grandmother, Ada Merriman – showing how memories warp and family secrets fester. This is a novel about love and disappointment, about thwarted lust and limitless desire, and how our fate is written in the body, not in the stars."
This makes me think of Joyce Carol Oates and her Rape: a Love Story. Must read. The Gathering.

Laureates I

By now, everyone knows that Doris Lessing will be the one to receive the Nobel Prize in literature in Stockholm December 10th. People ask why the academy and the nobel committees wait so many years before rewarding the potential laureates. One reason is that they want to see sustainable success and not " one hit wonders". Often times the Nobel Prize in literature rewards the work of a lifetime and not one single piece of work. However, the work of Lessing is heterogenus and contains many categories, even science fiction, which is not so common in this context.

Doris Lessing will be the oldest laureate ever to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature and Leonid Hurwicz that will receive the Prize in Economic Sciences will be the very oldest (90 yrs) in all categories.

Nobel Prize week

We are in the week of Nobel Prize announcements, it always catches my interest. Thursday is the day for literature. The betting odds rank Philip Roth, Claudio Magris, Haruki Murakami, Thomas Tranströmer, Amos Oz, Joyce Carol Oates as the more likely. Among these, the Swedish poet Thomas Tranströmer and Joyce Carol Oates are personal favourites.

Man Booker Short List 2007

I'm in an intense work period since after summer holiday but it's time for an update. The short list for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2007 was released a month ago and in a week the laureate will be announced. The six finalists are:
Darkmans by Nicola Barker
The Gathering by Anne Enright
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Animal’s People by Indra Sinha