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Citation

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Translated from the original French by Alison Anderson

Nominated by:

Judges' comments

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is the story of what happens when Madame Renée Michel, the lowly concierge of a suave Parisian apartment block, finds her life-long habits of secret aesthetic indulgence and intellectual engagement interrupted by two of the buildings tenants; one, a precocious twelve-year-old schoolgirl, the other a wealthy Japanese widower of exquisite taste and impeccable manners. The strange triangle of connection that builds between these three characters uncovers a secret life of the mind, running beneath the prosaic and materialist obsessions of the French haute bourgeoisie. Author Muriel Barbery cleverly blends a subtle postmodern narrative with deep-rooted human interest to produce a perfectly constructed novel, erudite and whimsical by turns, and full of unpredictable, affecting relationships.

In Zodiac Light by Robert Edric

Nominated by:

• Warsaw Public Library / Biblioteka Glowna Województwa Mazowieckiego, Poland

Judges' comments

Robert Edric’s latest offering is an insightful, masterly crafted piece of fiction based on true events. The novel traces the story of Ivor Gurney, ex-soldier, poet and composer who spent the second half of his life in the City of London Mental Hospital, Dartford, until his death in 1937. Suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, Gurney was neglected by the military and by his own family. Only a handful of his friends were there for him as he tried to fight off madness and oblivion which he believed had long been waiting to claim him. Written in an economical, Hemingwayesque manner, this is a true gem of a novel allowing us to understand the inner workings of a creative mind.

Settlement by Christoph Hein

Translated from the original German by Philip Boehm

Nominated by:

• Stadtbibliothek Leipzig, Germany
  

Judges' comments

Hein’s beautifully translated novel enlists the reader’s help in constructing this profound portrait of German reunification. The story of East German refugee, Bernard Haber, is masterfully told in five first-person narratives by various friends and associates; it spans fifty years of his life, and traces the vicissitudes of his immersion into 1990s capitalism. The power of this stylish novel lies not only in the authenticity of the different voices through which Haber’s life is so poignantly explored; the personal stories also bring to life the complexities of a multi-faceted social and political world.    

The Believers by Zoë Heller

Nominated by:

• The National Library of Estonia, Tallinn
  

Judges' comments

It is Heller’s assured and seductive style that lures the reader into this brilliant exploration of family life in postmodern times. The compelling story of a radical lawyer who is dying, and whose wife discovers that he has another family, is handled with wry humour, and the far-ranging issues of infidelity, adoption, drug abuse, religious and political orthodoxies, parenthood and love across the racial divide are artfully intertwined. Ironic, and subtly observed, The Believers achieves the rare goal of interrogating with cutting clarity the progressive culture born in the sixties, but without cynicism or piety. The triumphal ending, in which the widow transcends the personal pain of betrayal, affirms love and inclusiveness, but remains true to the spirit of the equivocal that makes this a remarkable novel. 

Netherland by Joseph O'Neill

Nominated by:

• Buchereien Wein, Austria
• Cork City Libraries, Ireland
• Waterford County Library, Ireland
• Cape Town Central Library, South Africa
• Richmond Public Library, Virginia, USA
• San José Public Library, California, USA
• Hartford Public Library, Connecticut, USA
  

Judges' comments

Joseph O’Neill was congratulated by Barack Obama on the BBC for having created Netherland, a magnificent novel that shows how hard it is for Americans to recover from the shock of 9/11. Comical, melancholy and satiric by turns, Joseph O’Neill plays his variations on the theme of New York with consummate skill from one end to the other. 

God's Own Country by Ross Raisin

Nominated by:

• M.I. Rudomino State Library for Foreign Literature, Moscow, Russia

Judges' comments

How rare it is to find in any novel - let alone a first novel-- a voice so compelling and authentic that it carries the entire story.  With Sam Marsdyke, the troubled teenage anti-hero of Ross Raisin’s God’s Own Country, we have just such a voice--  raw, hurt, blisteringly inventive— and perfectly fitted to the sad tale of a farm boy whose growing social alienation leads him to wreak havoc on his community. Marsdyke’s flight across the Yorkshire Moors is a journey from civility into depravation but also a desperate, anarchic rush for freedom, which completely absorbs and overwhelms the reader. Written with an extraordinary verbal ingenuity and a riotous play with dialect, this is a fresh and vivid novel which challenges our view of those who slip through the conventional nets of sanity.    

Home by Marilynne Robinson

Nominated by:

• Cape Breton Regional Library, Sydney, Canada
• Lincoln City Libraries, USA
• Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs, USA
• Miami-Dade Public Library System, Florida, USA

Judges' comments

Barack Obama praised Marilynne Robinson’s novel Gilead to the skies and he was quite right to do so. Home, her next novel, treats the same themes with equal mastery. Home is centered on the family of Reverend Robert Broughton, the closest friend of Reverend John Ames, the hero of Gilead. We see all the author’s main concerns in this novel, too: religious faith, but also the family and its buried secrets and its isolation, thwarted loves, and the approach of death. Marilynne Robinson has a gift for story-telling and for creating characters who come alive; the emotion is continuous and the music of her prose is always just right. 

The complete list of nominated titles

The complete list of participating libraries

The panel of judges