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Ruskovich wins 2019 International Dublin Literary Award for ‘Idaho’

US writer Emily Ruskovich has won the €100,000 (A$162,930) Dublin International Literary award for her debut novel Idaho (Vintage).

Idaho follows a family living in the isolated Northern Idaho mountains whose life is disrupted by ‘something unimaginably shocking’ that scatters ‘the family in every different direction’.

The 2019 judging panel, which includes Australian writer Evie Wyld, said: ‘Ruskovich’s masterful achievement is to narrate with consummate skill the complex series of events covering a time-span of more than 50 years. Empathy and love stand next to cruelty and crime. Individual guilt, trauma and pain are looming as large as eventual forgiveness and the ability to live in half-knowledge. Ultimately, Idaho evolves into a masterpiece on the redeeming and regenerative potential of music, poetry, literature and art.’

Ruskovich said, ‘I cannot express how grateful I am to be the recipient of this astonishingly generous award … I am especially honoured because of the admiration that I feel for the other finalists, authors from all over the world who are all doing such crucial and beautiful work.’

Now in its 24th year, the award is presented annually for a novel written in English or translated into English, nominated by library systems in major cities around the world. Chosen from a shortlist of 10, Idaho was nominated by only one library, the Brugge Public Library in Belgium.

For more information about this year’s winner, visit the website.

 

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Category: Awards International news