Gerbrand Bakker has been awarded the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the second most important international literary prize after the Nobel Prize. The prize is worth 100,000 euros, 75, 000 for the author and 25,000 for the translator, David Colmer. The prize was handed over by the Mayor of Dublin on 17 June during a dinner for the nominees and their guests in Dublin.
The Twin
The IMPAC prize has been awarded annually since 1996 for a book written or translated into English. Libraries all over the world can make a nomination; a jury makes the final decision on the winner. Previous winners include Colm Tóibin, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Orhan Pamuk, Michel Houellebecq, Herta Müller and Javier Marias. The jury selected Boven is het stil (translated into English as The Twin) over books by Christoph Hein, Zoë Heller, Joseph O’Neill and Marilynne Robinson.
Recognition
The award represents tremendous recognition for this work by Gerbrand Bakker and his translator David Colmer. Boven is het stil, by Gerbrand Bakker, became a bestseller within months of its publication in the Netherlands and was a great success for the Dutch publisher Cossee. It then made an international breakthrough too. The English and German reviews were lyrical. Meanwhile the book is being or has been translated into eight languages. David Colmer is a leading translator of work by, amongst others, Adriaan van Dis, Anna Enquist, Dimitri Verhulst and, most recently, Awater by Martinus Nijhoff.
The prize is also a great boost for the English publisher Harvill/Secker. The renowned publisher from the Random House group has already published many Dutch writers in translation, including Willem Frederik Hermans, Geert Mak and Frank Westerman. Bakker’s American publisher, Archipelago, will soon bring out a translation of Eline Vere by Couperus. The Dutch literary foundation, Nederlands Letterenfonds, sees the prize as an accolade for the work of one of its predecessors, the Nederlands Literair Productie- en Vertalingenfonds, which, after years of intensive promotional work in England is delighted to see a Dutch work rewarded.
More information
www.letterenfonds.nl
www.fondsvoordeletteren.nl
www.nlpvf.nl
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