Frank O’Connor shortlist announced
Date: July 31, 2007 | Discussion: No Comments
Shortlist for the 2007 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize has been announced. The world’s richest short story award, now awarded for the third time, is funded by the Cork City Council, and awarded annually in association with the Irish Times.
This year’s shortlist consists of six authors from five countries, with only three of the nominated authors being full-time writers. Notable omissions from the original longlist include David Malouf, Alice Munro and Mary Gordon.
This year’s Frank O’Connor Prize shortlist is:
Opportunity
by Charlotte Grimshaw
Unfortunately, no description is available for this work.
No One Belongs Here More Than You
by Miranda July
In her debut collection of short stories, July introduces the possibility of a moment that can change everything. A child stands in the sidewalk; a woman lies motionless in bed beside her husband; a teacher pauses at the chalkboard; when suddenly the daily drone is disrupted by something completely unexpected. July’s characters are awkward and often remote, yet they are also profoundly sympathetic. With great compassion and generosity she reveals the idiosyncrasies, vulnerability, longing, and odd logic that govern our lives. In “No One Belongs Here More Than You July” creates a deliriously hopeful universe where strangers hug and students swim across the kitchen floor. The same energy that captivates her film audiences is transposed into exhilarating new fiction.
You can read more about No One Belongs Here More Than You at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.ca.
Missing Kissinger
by Etgar Keret
A magician tries to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but takes out only its head; a guy brings a girl home with him for the first time only to find that his best friend has pissed on his doorstep; a young man graduates from Magician School but soon discovers that he can’t do everything; two drunk students do battle with a pavement and win; someone has a mother and a girlfriend who hate each other’s guts, and they both demand that he gives them the other one’s heart…many of the characters in these stories are waiting for something to change their lives, many of them can’t quite reach ultimate happiness, some of them are sick, some are abandoned, and most have trouble communicating. The unexpected can, and usually does, happen. Etgar Keret’s stories are very short – and every word counts. They are quick, brief and precise, and they move us without hesitation. They are hilarious and off-the-wall, yet also dark, sometimes violent, and often intensely poignant.
You can read more about Missing Kissinger at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.ca.
The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue
by Manuel Muñoz
In a series of ten interconnected stories, Manuel Muñoz illuminates the lives of several Mexican-American families in the same neighborhood in Central California. In these stories, sometimes belief is all there is: belief that a better job will come, that the loved one will return love, that a surly teenager headed for trouble will straighten out, that a gay son will change–faith and hope are staples of these people’s lives. For the most part, they are disappointed. Most of the stories are of single mothers or fathers trying to raise families under the shadow of immigration and language problems and too little money. The subtext of many of the stories is homosexuality, not a lifestyle embraced by the Mexican-American community.
You can read more about The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.ca.
Valentines
by Olaf Olafsson
Olaf Olafsson’s fans will recognize the perfect restraint and precision–and quick wit–with which he characteristically explores these dark epiphanies, when the heart is suddenly laid bare, whether by love or betrayal, disenchantment or regret, or the shock of loss. While their settings range from the East Coast to the West Coast, from Paris to Slovenia and Iceland, these contemporary stories probe the complexity of modern relationships over time. A wife realizes her closest confidante is much more than that. A father tries to make his new lover into the image of his late wife. A lusty photographer confronts his own mortality. A couple’s long-anticipated anniversary vacation opens onto the past. A husband, a wife, a child, a boating accident: no harm done . . . and yet? Each of the twelve stories reveals another element in the agonizing nature of passion, diminished and yet sustained over time. This is a powerful work of fiction from one of our most gifted and subtle international writers at work today.
You can read more about Valentines at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
Award Title: The Separate Heart
by Simon Robson
If there is a thread running through Simon Robson’s brilliant collection of stories it is the notion of separateness – of adults from each other, of children from adult knowledge, of adult consciousness from the vividness of childhood. His protagonists are often unlikely – a cat, a man, met in a bar, who drove a chariot in Ben Hur, a girl who gets up very early – but these stories are satisfyingly long and devoid of modernist trickery; rather they are wise, funny, beautifully observed and somehow utterly true.
You can read more about The Separate Heart at Amazon.co.uk.
