2019 Dublin Nominees

The NH Dublin Committee has selected its nominees for the 2019 Dublin Literary Award. These are fictional works of high literary merit published in English during 2017. After reading and discussing many excellent books, the committee selected these titles for nomination:

Swinging from heartbreaking and tragic, to humorous and lively, Lincoln in the Bardo is a unique, bizarre and captivating story. It centers around the death of Abraham Lincoln’s son Willie, and both Lincoln and Willie’s inability to move past Willie’s sudden death. This causes both to become trapped in a type of limbo; Lincoln’s in which he continually visits Willie’s crypt to hold his son’s body while grieving, and Willie, in the bardo (a Tibetan word for the "transitional" state between lives). An entire cast of characters accompanies Willie in the bardo, including many other spirits who have never been able to accept their death. The juxtaposition of historical fiction with the spirit world (that is at times more lively than the world of the living) makes this novel one that is unforgettable.

An epic story that explores the lives of generations of Koreans who emigrate to Japan during the early part of the 20th century, Pachinko addresses universal themes of family, duty and identity. 

In The Ministry of Utmost Happiness Arundhati Roy braids together the stories of many people (mostly in India and Kashmir) into a lyrical novel filled with horror and love and the intimate struggles of facing each day as it comes.