It seems that I am adding books to my to-be-read pile daily. This morning I received a press release from Anansi, a Canadian publisher that I researched several years ago as part of a book editing course. It seems that Rawi Hage (author of De Niro’s Game) has won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. That’s worth €100,000 (about $160,000 Canadian and the richest literary prize anywhere) for his first book.
I knew about this book, and it was on my maybe list. I have to admit that I tend to avoid books that win literary awards, but this one is winning international awards. I find that interesting because it implies an ability to reach people of many different cultures at a level high enough to win awards.
Of course, the fact that Hage was writing in his third language also intrigues me. I find that authors who speak and write a number of languages often put words together in new and surprising ways. Maybe it’s because cliches and idioms are not as ingrained when you use a variety of languages, or may they are there, but translated and harder to find.
In any case, one more book goes on the stack. Leave me a note, if you’ve read the book. I’d love to hear what you thought of it (no spoilers though, please).
