Rooney, MacLaverty and McGregor make Dublin Literary Award shortlist

Sally Rooney, Bernard MacLaverty and Jon McGregor are among the 10 writers shortlisted for the €100,000 International Dublin Literary Award.

The diverse list includes novels from Ireland, France, Pakistan, the UK and the USA nominated by public libraries across the world. 

Irish author Rooney’s Conversations with Friends (Faber and Hogarth) made the list alongside MacLaverty’s Midwinter Break (Jonathan Cape and W W Norton) and Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (Fourth Estate). 

Compass by Mathias Énard, translated from French by Charlotte Mandell (New Directions and Fitzcarraldo Editions), History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund (Grove Atlantic) and Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (Vintage, UK and Penguin, USA) were also nominated. 

Idaho by Emily Ruskovich (Chatto & Windus), Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (Bloomsbury), A Boy in Winter by Rachel Seiffert (Virago Press) and Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (Bloomsbury and Riverhead Books) complete the shortlist. 

Announcing the shortlist, Lord Mayor of Dublin Nial Ring said: “The egalitarian way in which books are long listed, through public libraries worldwide, is to be commended in a world where sales figures can dominate the literary conversation so often. The beauty of this award is that it reaches out to readers and authors worldwide, while also celebrating excellence in contemporary Irish literature represented on the 2019 shortlist by Sally Rooney and Bernard MacLaverty.”

The five member international judging panel, chaired by Eugene R Sullivan, will select one winner, which will be announced by the Lord Mayor on 12th June.