Two Scribe titles have been longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award 2018: Tommy Wieringa's A Beautiful Young Wife, and Anosh Irani's The Parcel.
In A Beautiful Young Wife, Edward Landauer, a brilliant scientist in his forties, meets a beautiful young woman. She is the love of his life and, when the two marry, he is the happiest man in the world. But Ruth’s beauty and youth cannot stop him growing older. After the birth of their long-awaited son, the ‘happiness, delicate like filigree’ turns into something new, and Edward no longer recognises his great romance nor the woman who induced it.
The Parcel is set in the swollen and crumbling red-light district of Kamathipura, at the heart of Bombay. Madhu — a third-gender 'hijra', neither man nor woman — is given a difficult and potentially lucrative task by her housemother: to prepare a newly arrived ‘parcel’ for its opening. The parcel is a ten-year-old girl from the provinces, sold into the sex trade by her aunt.
The International Dublin Literary Award is presented annually for a novel written in English or translated into English, and aims to promote excellence in world literature. Nominations are submitted by library systems in major cities throughout the world. The award is now in its 23rd year, and the shortlist will be announced in April 2018.
