CENTER FOR THE BOOK AT THE N.H. STATE LIBRARY

From the Director's Desk ~ In 1994 the City Council of Dublin, Ireland granted a charter that authorized the establishment of a trust "to encourage new works of high literary merit...by making an annual award to be known as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award." The first of these awards was made in 1996 to David Malouf for Remembering Babylon. Unlike many literary awards where a set of nominees is chosen by a small group of people and then a broader group selects a winner, the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award draws its nominations from libraries in capitals and major cities throughout the world.

New Hampshire has been involved with this prestigious international award since 1998 and the N.H. Dublin Committee is currently part of the Center for the Book at the N.H. State Library. The N.H. Dublin Committee is made up of librarians and other New Hampshire readers. Each year the committee reads, discusses, and evaluates current works of fiction (published in English) to identify those that are of such "high literary merit" that they warrant being nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award which carries a price of   100,000.

If you are looking for a great book to read, I highly recommend the committee's nominees for the 2005 award, which have just been sent off to Dublin:

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon, is a story of an autistic boy, Christopher, whose Sherlock Holmes-inspired search for the murderer of his neighbor's dog brings him more information than he bargained for and brings his carefully ordered world tumbling down around him. The story is told entirely by Christopher who explains his observations of the world and rules for managing it in a way that is poetic, touching, and at times very funny.
• The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, is a novel about identify. The Ganguli family leaves Calcutta and comes to Massachusetts where they struggle, as a family and as individuals, to figure out who they are and how their culture (both the old and the new) defines each person's identity and their relationships with each other. Lahiri's writing is beautiful and her characters are well drawn.
• Easter Island, by Jennifer Vanderbes, finds two women of different eras on mysterious Easter Island: Elsa, an Englishwoman accompanying her anthropologist husband in 1912 to study the giant Moia stat- ues, and Greer, an American botanist, who arrives in 1973 to research the enigma of the island's lack of native trees. Compelling personal stories of these two women are presented within a rich mix of his- tory, science, drama and romance.

The N.H. Dublin Committee has already begun reading in preparation for making our nomination for the 2006 award and would like your help in identifying fictional works of high literary merit. To be eligible for consideration for the 2006 Award, a novel must have been: first published in English between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2004, both dates inclusive, or first published in a language other than English between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2004 and first published in English translation between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2004 (all dates inclusive). Please send your suggestions, including the title, author and a brief statement about why you feel the book merits consideration to Alice Nye, Chair of the Dublin Committee. Her address is nyea@library.state.nh.us, or visit our web page at http://www.state.nh.us/nhsl/bookcenter/programs/impac.html where you will find an e-mail link as well as information about other titles that have been N.H. Dublin nominees.