STREET WITHOUT A NAME shortlisted for European Book Award 2009.
October 2, 2009
The shortlist for this year's European Book Award has been announced and STREET WITHOUT A NAME, Kapka Kassabova's memoir of her return to Bulgaria, is one of the seven nominees.The winner will be presented with a prize of €10,000 at a ceremony in Brussels on Wednesday 9 December 2009.
The other shortlisted books are:
CEUX QUI MARCHENT DANS LES VILLES - Jean-François Dauven (Belgium)
LA DERNIÈRE CONFÉRENCE - Marc Bressant (France)
COURLANDE - Jean-Paul Kauffmann (France)
GOTTLAND - Marius Szczygiel (Poland)
ZONE CIRQUE - Joachim Topol (Czech Republic)
LE RÊVE DU PHILOLOGUE - Bjorn Larsson (Sweden)
Published in the UK by Portobello, STREET WITHOUT A NAME has also been sold in several countries around the world, including to Skyhorse in the US and Penguin in New Zealand. Translation rights are sold in Bulgaria.
Praise for STREET WITHOUT A NAME:
'Kapka Kassabova's uncanny ability to recall her childhood perceptions in all their intense purity gives us a unique memoir of what it was like to grow up in a Communist satellite country. In the mosaic of books about the bad old days, this book is the piece that was always missing. Now we have it, and it shines.'
-- Clive James
'A fascinating book - at once evocative, disturbing, and chock-a-block full of charm.'
-- Jan Morris
'She writes with good humour and the book is sometimes extremely funny...a rich but honest picture of a small, very beautiful, endlessly fascinating and sometimes violent country. A very fine piece of writing.'
-- Misha Glenny, The Guardian, Book of the Week
'Elegant assurance, an acid wit and a heart-rending precision that can make you see the world quite differently. A treasure.'
-- Pico Iyer