Novelist Deirdre Madden from Northern Ireland was among five writers named yesterday on the international panel of judges that will decide the winner of the 2003 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
The judges take on the task of reading a long-list of nominated works, which have been recommended by 150 library systems in 40 countries and from 114 cities.
"I have to read 125 books by March. It's a huge amount of reading, and to see the sheer quantity of books is daunting," said Ms Madden, whose own novel, One By One in the Darkness, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 1997.
Five Irish authors are among those nominated for the 2003 prize, which is worth €100,000. They are John McGahern for That They May Face the Rising Sun, Michael Curtin for Sing!, Nuala O'Faolain for My Dream of You, Jamie O'Neill for At Swim, Two Boys and Niall Williams for The Fall of Light.
Three novels in translation have won the award, which is now in its eighth year, most recently Michel Houellebecq's controversial Atomised.