The shortlist of 10 books for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2004 was announced this morning by the Dublin Lord Mayor, Councillor Royston Brady.
The award is the world's largest literary prize, worth €100,000 for a single work of fiction.
The 10 titles were selected from a list of 125 nominated by 162 libraries from 47 countries - and 35 titles nominated were translations. The winner will be announced on 17th June in City Hall, Dublin.
The shortlisted titles are:
- The Book of Illusionsby Paul Auster
- Any Human Heartby William Boyd
- Carameloby Sandra Cisneros
- Middlesexby Jeffrey Eugenides
- The White Familyby Maggie Gee
- This Blinding Absence of Lightby Tahar Ben Jelloun, translated from French by Linda Coverdale
- Balthasar's Odysseyby Amin Maalouf, translated from French by Barbara Bray
- Family Mattersby Rohinton Mistry
- Earth and Ashesby Atiq Rahimi, translated from the Dari by Erdag M.Goknar
- House of Day, House of Nightby Olga Tokarczuk, translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is an initiative of Dublin City Council and was established by Civic Charter in 1995.
Awarded annually, with the objective of promoting excellence in world literature, it is open to novels written in any language and by authors of any nationality, provided the book has been published in English or English translation in the specified time period.
Since its inception, the award has operated as a partnership between IMPAC and Dublin City Council.
Last year's competition was won by Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red,a slow-moving study of murder among Persian miniaturist painters.