The Dublin Literary Award 2024 Longlist and my three choices

The Dublin Literary Award, sponsored by Dublin City Council (Ireland), announced the first round of nominees for its award given to a single work of fiction published in English. It’s one of my favorite annual awards, as the nominations come from libraries around the world, librarians nominating novels they think are worthy of this honor and recognition. In other words, it’s not a usual panel of judges made up of authors, critics, and translators making the decisions.

Librarians live the daily thrum of books, their thumbs on the pulse of not only what they read but what their patrons read. This longlist of nominees feels to me like tapping into a ground source of books, like talking to fishermen about the sea, and farmers about the land. This year, 70 books were nominated by 80 libraries from 35 countries.

In my first pass of browsing the longlist, I decided to focus on the books I had considered reading but skipped over. While there are many I haven’t read that I want to consider (and I’ll return to browsing the list for those), these three invite me to make room for them.

Eduardo Halfon’s Canción is published by Bellevue Literary Press, an independent publishing house I follow closely for their new releases. Canción got my attention but lost out to other books when it was released this year. It’s a story of the eponymous narrator’s reflections on his Jewish grandfather’s multifaceted identity. From the novel’s description: “To understand more about the cold, fateful day in January 1967 when his grandfather was abducted by Guatemalan guerillas, Halfon searches his childhood memories.” The novel “addresses relevant issues in current discussion about Jewish diaspora, migration, and the armed conflict in Guatemala,” according to the nominating library’s commentary that praises the “memorable” characters and “captivating” prose. Together, in one narrative, those two praises become the draw.

Oh, Victor LaValle! I’ve circled his book The Ballad of Black Tom that won the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award for best novella, but I avoided it because it’s fantasy-horror, not a genre I typically read. And then there I am flipping through Lone Women earlier this year at the library, wishing I had read the former and thinking I wanted now to read what I held in my hands. From the book’s description: “Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear.” It’s 1915, and she’s fled California to become a homesteader, taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it. The secret that haunts her “might be the only thing that will help her survive the harsh territory.” No more circling. Lone Women is too enticing.

Finally, The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier. It’s the page count that deterred me, near to 500; and yet, it’s hugely popular and much praised by readers/podcasters I follow on social media with their eye on translated literature. Still, that kind of page count is a commitment. Will it pay off? From the book’s description, it certainly has “mystery” appeal: “While Patrice plans a surprise for his wife’s fortieth birthday, inexplicable events start to disrupt the hamlet’s quiet existence: anonymous, menacing letters, an unfamiliar car rolling up the driveway. And as night falls, strangers stalk the houses, unleashing a nightmarish chain of events.” The story takes place during one day. This really does sound like a must-read.

The six novels above are also longlisted nominees. They’ve appeared previously on The Longest Chapter, except for Paul Harding’s This Other Eden. These I’ve read, and I highly recommend them.

You can browse the longlist on the award website, scrolling through the nominees where you’ll find plot descriptions and the nominating libraries’ reasons for their recommendations. The shortlist of finalists will be announced March 26.