‘I spent five years on it, winning this is a dream’ – author and translator scoop €100,000 literary award

The novel Solenoid has won the €100,000 top prize in the Dublin Literary Awards.

Romanian author Mircea Cartarescu and his American translator, Sean Cotter, were announced as the winners of the world’s largest prize for a single novel published in the English language.

The winner was announced at the International Literature Festival Dublin.

“Winning the prize is really a dream, I never thought I could make it,” Cartarescu said.

“It’s one of those novels where you put everything that you know, you lived, you heard, you suffered, all your joys, sorrows, and fears. I spent a long time working on it, five years.

“Everywhere it was published, it was admired by the people. It had nice reviews. Last year, we won the Los Angeles book prize. This year, we got the Dublin prize.

“It’s absolutely fantastic for me. “Dublin is very special to me. I love Irish literature very much.

“I admire Swift, Joyce and Yeats, many Irish writers. I appreciate Irish literature, the arts, and the culture.

“I feel great here. There’s a reason why I appreciate this prize so much. People say, ‘If you throw a pebble in Dublin, it will land on the head of a poet’.”

Cartarescu is a writer, academic and journalist who has published more than 25 books. His work has been translated into 23 languages.

Based on Cartarescu’s background as a school teacher, Solenoid begins with a diarist’s life quickly spiralling into a philosophical account of life, history, philosophy and mathematics.

The novel investigates other universes, dimensions, and timelines. It also reflects the reality of late 1970s-early 1980s communist Romania.

“Winning the Dublin Literary Award is one of the most significant achievements in my whole literary career, and a great honour for me,” Cartarescu said.

“It shows an increase in my image as a writer in the English-speaking world after the publication of Solenoid.”

The award is based on nominations from public libraries around the world and recognises writers and translators.

Cartarescu gets €75,000 and translator Mr Cotter, who is a professor at the University of Texas, receives the rest.

“The Dublin Literary Award awards translators alongside authors, a choice as unusual as it is necessary,” Professor Cotter said.

“I am honoured to be recognised with as great an author as Mircea.”

Solenoid is the 12th novel in translation to win the Dublin City Council-sponsored literary award.

Dublin Lord Mayor Daithí de Róiste made the announcement yesterday.

“Solenoid illustrates the elasticity of human imagination where the reader is invited on a fantastical ride with a nameless anti-hero in Bucharest,” he said.

“Mircea Cartarescu and Sean Cotter deserve to win the Dublin Literary Award for this surreal masterpiece.”

Cartarescu and Prof Cotter are to appear at the International Literature Festival Dublin for a conversation with Alex Clark today at 6pm in Merrion Square Park.

“If you throw a pebble in Dublin, it will land on the head of a poet” Mircea Cartarescu