News

Two novels due to be published by Ikaros in the coming months have made the longlist for The Man Booker Prize 2017, which has just been announced.Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders’s first novel (translated by Giorgos-Ikaros Babasakis), is due to be published this coming September, whilst Days Without End by the Irish author Sebastian Barry, whose books have previously been recognised by the Booker Prize committee, will be published in spring 2018, translated by Maria Angelidou. The shortlist will be announced on 13 September. See the full list of nominations here.

Irish novelist Colm Tóibín is this year’s winner of the 2017 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award 2017, an award that honours the power of literature to promote peace, social justice and social understanding on a global scale.Among the Irish novelist’s books available in Greek, all translated by Athina Dimitriadou, are the following:Maria’s Testament, the heart-wrenching narrative of a mother that offers a human-centred perspective on the events that shaped humanity.Nora Webster: triggered by loss and grief, we read a gripping story of the heroine’s awakening and transformation.Brooklyn, a tender coming-of-age story of dilemmas (between family and love) that was successfully adapted for the cinema, earning three nominations at the 2016 Oscars.&Sharon Rab, co-chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation, which awards the prize, said: ‘Tóibín’s writing reminds us of the existence of humanity but also of the possibility of reconciliation, or more simply of understanding, which are the first steps towards achieving peace.’Colm Tóibín said of the award: “Through fiction, we learn to observe others. The page of a book is not a mirror. It is blank when I begin to write, but once written, it contains a version of the world... and exists to inspire readers.” The prize carries a cash award of $10,000, and previous winners include Studs Terk, Taylor Branch, Gloria Steinem and Elie Wiesel. The award ceremony will take place in Dayton, Ohio, on 5 November 2017. Find out more about the prize here. Find out more about Colm Tóibín and his books published by Ikaros here.

Enrique Vila-Matas has won the Feronia-Città di Fiano International Prize for his book *Kassel no invita a la lógica* (There is no logic in Kassel), which has just been published in Greek, translated by Nanna Papanikolaou.  The leading Catalan author has joined the long list of award-winning writers, including Günter Grass, Coetzee, Adonis, Gao Xingjian, Kadare, and many others.In the book, Vila Matas, taking his cue from documenta, the world’s most ambitious contemporary art exhibition, creates a contemporary novel whose protagonist is a writer who becomes a living art installation at the exhibition, revealing the essence of literature as well as the true purpose of writing. The Feronia-Città di Fiano International Prize is regarded by many as an ‘anti-prize’, as the titles are selected based primarily on the quality of the texts rather than the prevailing logic of the publishing and cultural industries.One of the aims of the judging panel during the award’s 25th edition is to emphasise the importance of the written word, in the face of a communication system that has been distorted in recent years, mainly due to the excessive use of images in our daily lives.The jury comprised: Mario Quattrucci, Falasca, Ferilli, Ferrarotti, Ludovico Gatto and Lamberto Pignotti, continuing the legacy of Italian avant-garde literature of the 1960s (Balestrini, Sanguineti).The Feronia-Città di Fiano Prize is supported by UNESCO and the Lazio Romano community. Read more about the book *In Kassel There Is No Logic* and Enrique Vila-Matas here.

To mark the third anniversary of the publication of Giorgos K. Psaltis’s poetry collection *Panagies Elenes*, we recall the outstanding reading of the poem *Panagies Elenes*, I, by director Stathis Livathinos (at 7:05 in the video below) at the ‘Music and Poetry’ cycle at the Athens Concert Hall.  Panagies Elenes, I Hecuba weeps ― it matters not at all at this hour, whilst the victors laugh, drunk on wine, unaware of who has served it to them. A naked lord approaches her, holding on a lead a ―naturally― naked dog.The former queen strips away the flowers that, along with the season, her generation brought forth—a generation already defeated in a war not decided by any battle. The verse ‘Thus they buried Hector, the horse-tamer’ concludes the Iliad. Achilles is about to die; this is clearly stated. Not a single word about the Trojan Horse. Heroes die, politics continues, and the gods. The dog drags—with its teeth—the one whom future generations will be unable to determine if or when he existed.The lord is dressed appropriately.  *Giorgos K. Psaltis’s new poetry collection, Esena, will be published this autumn by Ikaros.