Irish publisher Bullaun Press won the Republic of Consciousness Prize for small presses in the U.K. and Ireland for Gaëlle Bélem's There's a Monster Behind the Door, translated from French by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert, the Guardian reported.
Judge Houman Barekat called the book a "rollicking, sardonic picaresque. The novel has important things to say about colonialism and society, but it's also tremendous fun--darkly funny, acerbic, energetic." Judge Jude Cook described it as "a compact, comic tour-de-force. It interrogates postcolonial legacies, domestic abuse and a young girl's rite of passage into adulthood with the lightest of touches."
Bélem's "tragi-comedy novel disrupts the tired trope of the trauma novel and is equally brutal in its critique of postcolonial narratives," said judge Alice Jolly. "The writing is lively, supple and vigorous. The work of the translators who have brought this book to English-speaking audiences must also be celebrated."
All longlisted presses received £500 (about $655) each. The shortlisted presses were awarded an additional £1,000 (about $1,310) each, with 70% going to the press and 30% to the writer and translator.
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Winners have been named for this year's Christopher Awards, which celebrate writers, producers, directors, authors, and illustrators whose work "affirms the highest values of the human spirit" and reflects the Christopher motto, "It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." The winners are:
Books for Adults:
American Mother by Colum McCann with Diane Foley (Etruscan Press)
The Boys of Riverside by Thomas Fuller (Doubleday)
Grieving Room by Leanne Friesen (Broadleaf Books/1517 Media)
I Can Fix This by Kristina Kuzmič (Viking)
Tears of Gold by Hannah Rose Thomas (Plough Publishing House)
Time to Thank by Steve Guttenberg (Post Hill Press/Simon & Schuster)
Books for Young People:
Manoli the Greek Mouse by George Psomas, illustrated by Penny Serrano (preschool & up, Mascot Books)
Small Things Mended by Casey W. Robinson, illustrated by Nancy Whitesides (kindergarten & up, Rocky Pond Books/Penguin Young Readers)
Grace Heard a Whisper by Kathy Izard, illustrated by Aniella Ernández (six & up, Grace Press).
Dive Deep: 40 Days with God at Sea by Sister Orianne Pietra René Dyck, FSP, illustrated by Romi Caron (eight & up, Pauline Books and Media)
Untangling Hope by Johnna Stein (YA, Promise686)
The Ballerina of Auschwitz by Edith Eva Eger, with Esmé Schwall (YA, Atheneum/S&S Children’s Publishing),