Rawi Hage Wins World's Richest Literary Prize
Posted on June 13, 2008
Rawi Hage won the world's most lucrative literary prize. The $155,000 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award went to Hage's debut novel, De Niro's Game, about two childhood friends who take different paths to survive amid civil war in the Lebanese capital.
Five judges from Ireland, Britain, Spain and the United States selected Hage for the $155,000 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His work beat 136 other books from 45 countries, all works published in English in 2006. All the books had been nominated by libraries worldwide. Hage is the second Canadian to win the award. The first was Alastair Macleod in 2001 for his novel "No Great Mischief."Only one Irish writer made the finalist list: Patrick McCable for his novel, Winterwood. The other finalists were The Attack, by Yasmina Khadra; Let It Be Morning, by Sayed Kashua; The Woman Who Waited, by Andrei Makine; The Sweet & Simple Kind, by Yasmine Gooneratne; Dreams of Speaking, by Gail Jones; and The Speed of Light, by Javier Cercas.Hage, 44, fled war-torn Beirut in the early 1980s, studied at the New York Institute of Photography and settled in 1991 in Montreal, where he has built a career as a photographer and essayist. The judges praised "De Niro's Game" as "an eloquent, forthright and at times beautifully written first novel. Ringing with insight and authenticity, the novel shows how war can envelop lives."
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It was shortlisted in Canada for both a Giller and Governor General's Award. Hage received the IMPAC prize in a ceremony at Dublin City Hall where he declared himself "a fortunate man." "After a long journey of war, displacement and separation, I feel that I am one of the few wanderers who is privileged enough to have been rewarded, and for that I am very grateful," he said. Hage said he sought to follow a tradition of authors "who have chosen the painful and costly portrayal of truth over tribal self-righteousness."