2011 Dublin Winner

Let the Great World Spin by Dublin author Colum McCann, has won the 2011 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award. The Award is organized by Dublin City Libraries, on behalf of Dublin City Council and sponsored by IMPAC, an international management productivity company. The prize is €100,000. It is the largest prize for a single novel published in English. Uniquely, the IMPAC DUBLIN receives its nominations from public libraries around the globe.


"Colum McCann joins a long list of eminent novelists to win this award" said the Lord Mayor and Patron of the Award, Gerry Breen, “and it is wonderful and fitting to have a Dublin winner in the year that Dublin was awarded UNESCO City of Literature designation, a designation in perpetuity.”

Let the Great World Spin has beaten off competition from 161 other titles, nominated by 166 public libraries from 43 countries. It was first published in the USA by Random House and in the UK by Bloomsbury. The shortlist of ten novels included novels from the USA, Australia, Canada, and Ireland. Colum McCann is the second Irish author to win the prize. It was award to Colm Toibín in 2006 for The Master. Let the Great World Spin was also the most popular choice of libraries worldwide. It received 14 nominations from libraries in Ireland, Germany, Greece, Norway, the USA and Canada.


About the book…..

New York, August 1974: a man is walking in the sky. Between the newly built Twin Towers, the man twirls through the air. Far below, the lives of complete strangers spin towards each other: Corrigan, a radical Irish monk working in the Bronx; Claire, a delicate Upper East Side housewife reeling from the death of her son; Lara, a drug-addled young artist; Gloria, solid and proud despite decades of hardship; Tillie, a hooker who used to dream of a better life; and Jazzlyn, her beautiful daughter raised on promises that reach beyond the skyline of New York. In the shadow of one reckless and beautiful act, these disparate lives will collide, and be transformed for ever.