June 12, 2008: Rawi Hage is the second Canadian to win the prestigious IMPAC award for his novel De Niro's Game. The award is run by the Dublin Public Library System and funded by Improved Management Productivity and Control, a management consultancy based in Connecticut. The award included a monetary prize of 100, 000 pounds (about $150 000 CAD). This marks the first time a debut novel has ever won the award.
De Niro's Game was published by House of Anansi Press in 2006. The book is about two childhood friends who are both trying to survive in war-torn Beirut, but in different ways. It was shortlisted for both the Governor General's Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Rawi Hage is a writer and ex-cabbie from Montreal, Quebec. He had this to say upon winning the IMPAC award: "To all those women and men of letters, and all artists who have gone beyond the aesthetics of the singular to represent the multiple and diverse, to all those men and women who have chosen the painful and costly portrayal of truth over tribal self-righteousness, I am grateful. We should all be grateful."
The other shortlisted titles for the award were "The Attack," by Yasmina Khadra; "Let It Be Morning," by Sayed Kashua; "The Woman Who Waited," by Andrei Makine; "The Sweet & Simple Kind," by Yasmine Gooneratne; "Dreams of Speaking," by Gail Jones; "The Speed of Light," by Javier Cercas, and "Winterwood," by Patrick McCabe.
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