John McGahern faces strong competition for the IMPAC literary prize, writes Eileen Battersby, Literary Correspondent
The Irish novelist, John McGahern, is among eight writers nominated for the €100,000 International Dublin Literary Award 2003. The shortlist announced today also includes three North Americans, a Swede, a South African, a Turk with a major international following and one of Portugal's leading writers.
At first glance, it may appear that McGahern's sixth novel, That They May Face The Rising Sun, nominated by libraries in Cork and Dublin, is well positioned to give Ireland its first win in the award's eight year history. Set in a lakeside community, it is both a pastoral narrative celebrating ritual and change in the course of a year, and a shrewd, perceptive study of human nature as seen through several characters, their respective utterances and most tellingly, their silences.
But this is a strong shortlist with two international award-winning bestsellers in a field of diverse, polished and important works The veteran Swedish writer, Per Olov Enquist's The Visit of the Royal Physician (or as published in the US, The Royal Physician's Visit), has already won the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger 2000.
Translated by Tiiina Nunnally, it is an elegant tale of court intrigue based on the messy reign of King Christian V11 who battled insanity and his own hopelessness, while his young queen, the English princess Caroline Mathilde becomes passionately involved with his adviser, the German doctor, Johann Friedrich Struensee.
Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections won the National Book Award 2001. This is the story of the Lamberts, a US family well on the way to collapse - Dad, the previously tyrannical Alfred, is faltering and beginning to enter a twilight zone all of his own, while Mom, the long bullied Enid, is intent on orchestrating one last family Christmas. Her three grown children are however all too mixed up to help themselves, never mind Mom. It is a big book, and certainly has its moments. There are several hilarious set pieces, the only catch is that so many US writers, such as John Updike, have already, often brilliantly, mined similar domestic territory - twinges of déjà vu may be experienced.
Author of Olympia (1998), an impressive debut drawing on three generations of a sporting family's joys and tragedies, the Canadian writer Dennis Bock again looks to history in his second novel, The Ash Garden. It is an intense, measured performance, a novel that will hold its own in any company.
Admittedly many of the facts of the story are well known, countless novelists have already been drawn to the same material, while Bock has also chosen to focus on three characters shaped by different aspects of the same conflict, the second World War and its aftermath. Quiet and thoughtful, it leaves the reader grateful to have read it. The current international situation makes it all the more timely.
Also important is Bitter Fruit by South African, Achmat Dangor. Set in Johnnesburg in 1998, it takes a dramatic look at the life of a couple, Silas and his wife Lydia, and that of their son. Admittedly, the presence of Nadine Gordimer is apparent throughout.
Dangor is also looking at life in the new South Africa. In common with Gordimer, he is balancing personal lives with the realities of a changing political situation.
The prose is raw, the polemic obvious and Dangor's is a determined, almost intimidating voice, yet it is a passionate, sincere novel of intent.
Orhan Pamuk, whose novels include The White Castle (1979; English translation 1990), The Black Book (1990; 1994) and The New Life (1997), is the voice of contemporary Turkish literature - at least for those confined to experiencing it in English translation. His storytelling is metaphysical and magical and somehow expresses the contrasts and essential differences separating East and West. My Name is Red, translated by Erdag M. Gömlaut Knar offers more Pamuk magic and is even more lush than his previous performance.
A variation of The Name of the Rose - with far more life and colour, it is set in 1590s Istanbul and the sultan having ordered a gorgeous book, designed to celebrate his life and times, may be disappointed as the project runs into difficulties. A murder provides the starting point for a thriller that reads as a dream and odyssey, a love story and discourse on the nature of art - and several other things.
The combined presence of McGahern, Enquist and Pamuk appear to overpower Lidia Jorge's intimate, rather slow moving family story The Painter of Birds (also published as The Migrant Painter of Birds.) Translated by Margaret Jull Costa, it explores the ongoing despair of a young girl denied her father who is known to her as Uncle. From passive witness to active seeker, the girl pieces together the history of a man who loved women and travelled the world, painting birds. It is a delicate, deliberately claustrophobic tale about injustice and denial.
Last but far from least is US writer Ann Patchett's Bel Canto, in which an official birthday party goes very wrong, leaving the guests hostage. Winner of the 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction, this is a novel of surprises that relies on strong characterisation.
The winner will be announced on May 19th.