Prize: Athens Prize for Literature

       They recently held the Athens Prize for Literature at the Greek National Library, awarded for a best Greek novel and a best novel in translation; that page has all the finalists -- which, in the foreign category, included:

• The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
• To the End of the Land by David Grossman
• Cockroach by Rawi Hage
• Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
• Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

       το βημα reports on the winning titles -- and has foreign category winner Leonardo Padura's thanks (all in Greek ...). Padura's El hombre que amaba los perros won the foreign fiction category -- a book not yet available in English, though many of Padura's other books are (see, for example, Adiós Hemingway). See also the Tusquets publicity page, Alfredo Fernandez Rodriguez's report in the Havana Times, or listen to an Instituto Cervantes of Chicago event, History and Fiction in The Man Who Loved Dogs with Leonardo Padura
       The winning Greek work was Το δάσος των παιδιώ ('The Forest of Children') by Χρήστος Αγγελάκος (Christos Angelakos); see also the Μεταίχμιο publicity page.

       (Thanks as always to Theodoros Grigoriadis for alerting me to the award.)