IMPAC at Length

The longlist for the IMPAC Dublin Prize (the world's most financially rewarding literary prize) has just been announced, and this year 138 novels nominated by 169 libraries from 129 cities in 49 countries. The Guardian reports that:

... on a list dominated by literary big-hitters, including Salman Rushdie, JM Coetzee, André Brink, Margaret Atwood and Nadine Gordimer, two acclaimed novels stand out for the sheer number of nominations they have received. Kazuo Ishiguro's take on the cloning debate, Never Let Me Go, which was shortlisted for the 2005 Booker prize, is the librarians' favourite with 18 nominations. Ian McEwan's Saturday, a tale of one extraordinary day in the life of a London brainsurgeon, garners 12 nominations, from Moscow to Tallahassee. John Banville's stylised Booker-winner, The Sea, is also a popular choice, while Zadie Smith's Orange-winner, On Beauty, which is partly set in Massachussets, receives support from Boston. ... Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore is in the running with 12 nominations and support that extends from Brazil to Belfast.

You might remember the controversy last year about some libraries nominating their compatriots rather than voting for the best fiction worldwide, which is surely in the spirit of the thing. The Guardian doesn't see it that way:

...this is part of Impac's charm. Where else would you come across a first novel from a Kathmandu author, Echoes of Pain by Ravi Thapaliya, (nominated by the national library of Nepal)?

You can read the longlist in its entirety and browse information on the nominees here.

Now then, what novel do you think our very patriotic National Library here nominated? Were you right? Were they right?