Impac prize 2012

The Impac prize winner for 2012 was announced yesterday. The winner is "Even the Dogs" by Jon McGregor. The Impac prize is chosen by librarians around the world and is the most significant prize of its kind.

Orange prize shortlist 2012

The Orange Prize shortlist for fiction came out yesterday. Here is the shortlist:

Esi Edugyan	Half Blood Blues	Serpent’s Tail	Canadian	2nd Novel
Anne Enright	The Forgotten	Waltz Jonathan Cape	Irish	5th Novel
Georgina Harding	Painter of Silence	Bloomsbury	British	3rd Novel
Madeline Miller	The Song of Achilles	Bloomsbury	American	1st Novel
Cynthia Ozick	Foreign Bodies	Atlantic Books	American	7th Novel
Ann Patchett	State of Wonder	Bloomsbury	American	6th Novel

impac award shortlist 2012

The short listed titles, announced by The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Andrew Montague, Patron of the Award, in Dublin today are:

1. Rocks in the Belly by Jon Bauer (British / Australian). Scribe Publications (First Novel)
2. The Matter with Morris by David Bergen (Canadian). Harper Collins, Canadva
3. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (American) Alfred A. Knopf
4. The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Born in Britain, raised in Sierra Leone) Bloomsbury Publishing
5. Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor (British) Bloomsbury
6. Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes (American) Atlantic Monthly Press (First novel)
7. Landed by Tim Pears (British) William Heinemann
8. Limassol by Yishai Sarid (Israeli) translated from Hebrew by Barbara Harshav Europa Editions
9. The Eternal Son by Cristovão Tezza, (Brazilian) translated from Portuguese by Alison Entrekin, Scribe Publications
10. Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin (American) Faber & Faber

Eileen Battersby had a great article about the shortlist last Thursday here is the link http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0412/1224314641774.html

The Cove by Ron Rash

Eileen Battersby has a very positive review of The Cove in today's Irish Times: have a look. It reminded us in VB of this great novel set in the south about Laurel and Hank an outcasted family running a farm in hills during World War 1. We agree with Eileen Battersby that The Cove is "a southern tragedy thats right on the money"

New nordic crime

There are some great new Nordic crime novels out this spring!

Jo Nesbo's Phantom brings Detective Harry Hole back to Oslo from Hong Kong to investigate a murder involving his step son Oleg and a new heroin like drug...violin.











A new author James Hamilton, who doesnt sound nordic..but I assure you is- his Lucifer Tears is a gripping thriller featuring detective Kari Vaara who investigates a sadomasochistic killing in Stockholm.


















One final not so nordic crime novel which I am starting this weekend is Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes. Mary absolutely loved this thriller which she spent the last few nights reading under the covers.

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY

 



Happy St Patrick's Day to all our customers, have a lovely holiday 
weekend, and pop in to see us we are open!


 

VILLAGE BOOK'S BOOK CLUB

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes,
was the 2nd book the book club discussed.

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit.
Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is in middle age. He's had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce.
He's certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer's letter is about to prove. The Sense of an Ending is the story of one man coming to terms with the past.

The group, bar one dissenter, thought that it was a wonderful book full of wit and insights, the characters are believable and if not altogether sympathetic, one is immediately drawn into the story, and the complexities of the relationships.  It is also about loneliness and the wish to change the mistakes of youth. 

Personally I gave it a second reading as I had so enjoyed it the first time, and I found it just as intriguing the second time round.

Mary