An unusual number of book awards have been presented in the past couple of weeks. Yesterday Deborah Eisenberg won the PEN/Faulkner prize for her short story collection, imaginatively named ‘The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg.” The award was founded in 1980 to recognize top quality American fiction.
“Matterhorn” by Karl Marlantes won the PNBA (Pacific Northwest Booksellers Assoc.) award (and another award) for a novel on Vietnam that took him 30 years to complete. The first link will take you to reviews and a video. According to Sebastian Junger of the NYT, it is ” one of the most profound and devastating novels ever to come out of Vietnam—or any war.”
Outside of the US, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (started in 2008) went to two authors. Raja Alem (a Saudi woman), who authored The Dove’s Necklace, will share the $50,000 with a Moroccan writer. Mohammed Achaari’s book The Arch and the Butterfly, examines Islamic extremism. More awards to discuss next time!
Shira S.
