2018 Dublin Award Nominees

 The NH Dublin Committee has selected its nominees for the 2018 Dublin Literary Award. These are fictional works of high literary merit published in English during 2016. After reading and discussing many excellent books, the committee selected these titles for nomination:

A Gentleman in Moscow is set within the volatile context of Soviet Russia in the 1920's and 30's. Amor Towles has written a charming novel, both comic and thoughtful. Centered on Count Alexander Rostov, sentenced to a life of house arrest in Moscow's most elegant hotel, the novel is imaginative, cleverly crafted, and peopled with an engaging cast of unforgettable characters.  

The Underground Railroad follows the grueling and tumultuous life of Cora; a young slave in the Antebellum South, and her unwavering quest for freedom.  Author Colson Whitehead’s literal imagery of a steam railway hidden underground, transporting slaves North brings an unorthodox and captivating view of one of the most wretched times in U.S. history.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is a multi-generational saga following the lives of two half-sisters – one married into privilege, one sold into slavery–and their descendants, spanning three hundred years in Ghana and America. It is a book that brings history to life in a way that, as one character puts it, “you feel it inside you.”