2020 Dublin Nominees

The NH Dublin Committee has selected its nominees for the 2020 Dublin Literary Award. These are fictional works of high literary merit published in English during 2018. After reading and discussing many excellent books, the committee selected these titles for nomination:

 

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

A sweeping 19^th-century adventure tale with a modern twist, told from the point of view of an eleven-year-old slave named Washington Black who becomes free while under the care of an eccentric explorer, inventor, naturalist, and abolitionist. What does it mean to be captive? What is true freedom? These are some of the questions posed in this tale of re-invention and redemption.

Virgil Wander by Leif Enger

Virgil Wander is a delightful novel, written with warmth and charm.  It’s full of strange events and quirky characters, but it also captures the way people in a small community care for each other, even as that community materially declines.

There There by Tommy Orange

There There comes from a viewpoint we don’t often see represented in fiction: that of the "Urban Indian."  Author Tommy Orange takes us inside the minds of a set of characters that in some ways could not be more different, but who are all trying to figure out how to balance connection to their cultural heritage with the demands of modern life.

NOTE: Tommy Orange will be at The Music Hall in Portsmouth as part of Writers' on a New England Stage on Thursday, May 16, 2019.