Six novels have been shortlisted for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award, and one of them is Solenoid by Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter.

The other five shortlisted titles are Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry, Haven by Emma Donoghue, If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery, The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr, and Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright.

Solenoid is grounded in the reality of late 1970s-early 1980s Communist Romania, “including long lines for groceries, the absurdities of the education system, and the misery of family life,” reads the book’s presentation. “Combining fiction with autobiography and history, Solenoid ruminates on the exchanges possible between the alternate dimensions of life and art within the Communist present.”

Mircea Cărtărescu is a writer, professor, and journalist who has published more than twenty-five books and had his work translated into twenty-three languages. He is also one of the most awarded Romanian authors, having received, among others, the Formentor Prize (2018), the Thomas Mann Prize (2018), the Austrian State Prize for Literature (2015), and the Vilenica Prize (2011).

Now in its 29th year, the Dublin Literary Award is a valuable annual prize worth EUR 100,000 to the winner. If the book has been translated, the author receives EUR 75,000, and the translator receives EUR 25,000. 

The winner will be announced by its patron, the mayor of Dublin, Daithí de Róiste, on May 23, as part of the International Literature Festival Dublin.

According to the award's official website, the novels nominated and shortlisted for the award will be available for readers to borrow from Dublin City Libraries and public libraries around Ireland. They can also be borrowed as eBooks and some as eAudiobooks on the free Borrowbox app, which is available to all public library users.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/Mircea Cartarescu)