Angolan author José Eduardo Agualusa's novel A General Theory of Oblivion (translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn) won the €100,000 (about $111,445) International Dublin Literary Award, which "aims to promote excellence in world literature" by honoring a novel written in English or translated into English. The prize receives its nominations from public libraries in cities around the globe and recognizes both writers and translators. Agualusa received €75,000 and Hahn €25,000.
The judging panel said: "Even while A General Theory of Oblivion details starvation, torture and killings and revolves around our need to forget, its tone and message are concerned with love. It is love that redeems Ludo and others, and it is love for the novel's Luanda setting that steeps the narrative in idiosyncratic detail. The writer gives his readers both understanding and hope, taking Angolan stories and making them universally applicable. No one is truly alone in José Eduardo Agualusa's Luanda beehive, and his characters make us, too, feel deeply connected to the world."
Hahn is donating half of his winnings to help establish a new prize for debut literary translation--the TA First Translation Prize, which will recognize "excellent debut literary prose translation published in the U.K." It is also being supported by the British Council and will be run by the Society of Authors alongside its nine other translation awards.
---
The Society of Authors distributed £94,000 (about $118,955) to writers at the organization's annual Authors' Awards ceremony. Among the honorees, Daniel Shand's Fallow took the £10,000 (about $12,655) Betty Trask Prize for "a first novel of outstanding literary merit by an author under the age of 35, writing in a traditional or romantic style." You can see a complete list of winners here.