'The winner of the 2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize is 'The Detour' by Dutch author Gerbrand Bakker, translated by David Colmer. 'The Detour' is only his second novel.
What is particularly noteworthy about this award is that, like the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and maybe too the Man Booker international Prize (the winner to be announced today in fact!), it puts the spotlight on books in translation and exposes the reader to so much fine world literature only accessible due to the marvellous work of that unsung hero, the translator. Read more »
Film adaptations of books can be divisive. Often it depends on which one you came across first, but in my case, it’s pretty nearly always the book first; and at this stage I’m wary of checking out film adaptations that can potentially ruin a favourite book (Lolita, anyone?). I just prefer my own imagination. That said, some films manage to avoid the pitfalls of plastic actors, dodgy accents, weird lighting effects, and blatant changes, and let you see the story from a new angle. And some even knock the socks off the book. Here’s a roundup of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Left: Eoin Moore, competition winner, with Dublin City Librarian, Margaret Hayes, and the Director, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, Jane Alger
Right: The New Stamp.
Click images to view larger versions.
Fighting Words, which provides free tutoring in creative writing for students of all ages in Ireland, was asked by An Post to invite primary and secondary school students to write a story which would capture the essence of Dublin city - in precisely 224 words! That story forms the design of the new stamp. The winner is Eoin Moore from Marino in Dublin and the stamp is available from major post offices. Read more »
Following the completion of improvement works, Dublin City Public Libraries announced the re-opening of Ballyfermot Library on Monday, 29th April, with new and improved services.
…the Bealtaine Festival begins to look as attractive as camping in a muddy field and listening to loud music once did.
Bealtaine used to be described as a festival ‘celebrating creativity in older age’ – which implies you have to be more or less in older age to take part.
Now it is ‘celebrating creativity as we age!’ Well, we are all aging (some of us faster than others I admit) so that means everyone doesn’t it? Read more »
I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with crime fiction author Donna Leon at a book signing in Dubray Bookshop (see photo on left) in Dublin on the 11th April last, where she was talking about her work and signing copies of her latest book 'The Golden Egg' . (the book is on order, I'll add link when it is available). Her description of this, the 22nd in the Commissario Brunetti series, as a "love letter to language" just increased my desire to get started on it, which I did soon after.
In this, Commissario Brunetti, at the behest of his wife Paola, looks into the suspicious death of a deaf-mute man who may also have had mental issues. Of interest too of course is that no one seems to know much if anything about the man, who worked in their local dry cleaners for many years. So it becomes an investigation to discover who this man with no paper trail was and what were his circumstances. Without wanting to give too much away, this is not a conventional crime story but rather a tale of a different sort of crime and the tragedy and injustice that can befall an individual born into the wrong circumstances. Read more »
'The winner of the 2013 
Film adaptations of books can be divisive. Often it depends on which one you came across first, but in my case, it’s pretty nearly always the book first; and at this stage I’m wary of checking out film adaptations that can potentially ruin a favourite book (Lolita, anyone?). I just prefer my own imagination. That said, some films manage to avoid the pitfalls of plastic actors, dodgy accents, weird lighting effects, and blatant changes, and let you see the story from a new angle. And some even knock the socks off the book. Here’s a roundup of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
. (the book is on order, I'll add link when it is available). Her description of this, the 22nd in the Commissario Brunetti series, as a "love letter to language" just increased my desire to get started on it, which I did soon after.
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