Winnipeg's David Bergen to vie for IMPAC award

The Matter with Morris nominated by Gander, NL, library

CBC News

Posted: Apr 12, 2012 3:12 PM ET

Last Updated: Apr 12, 2012 3:22 PM ET

David Bergen has been nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Award for The Matter with Morris. (Canadian Press)

Winnipeg writer David Bergen is a finalist for the 100,000-euro ($131,000 Cdn) IMPAC Dublin award, the world’s richest annual literary award for a single novel.

Bergen is nominated for The Matter with Morris, a novel that earned him a Giller Prize nomination in 2010. He is the only Canadian among the finalists for the international competition, which includes novels written in English or translated into English from around the world.

The full list of finalists:

Rocks in the Belly by Jon Bauer (British / Australian). Scribe Publications.
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (American) Alfred A. Knopf.
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Born in Britain, raised in Sierra Leone) Bloomsbury Publishing.
Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor (Scottish) Bloomsbury.
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes (American) Atlantic Monthly Press.
Landed by Tim Pears (British) William Heinemann.
Limassol by Yishai Sarid (Israeli), translated from Hebrew by Barbara Harshav, Europa Editions.
The Eternal Son by Cristovão Tezza, (Brazilian), translated from Portuguese by Alison Entrekin, Scribe Publications.
Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin (American) Faber & Faber.

David Bergen's new book tells the story of Morris Schutt, a man reassessing his life after his son is killed in Afghanistan. (CBC)Both Jon Bauer and Karl Marlantes are first-time novelists. These ten finalists were chosen from 147 novels nominated.

Bergen’s 2005 novel The Time In Between won the Giller Prize and he was short-listed for the Canadian award for both The Retreat and The Matter with Morris. The Matter with Morris is about a man looking back on his life after his son has been killed in Afghanistan.

Bergen's next novel, The Age of Hope, will be published this fall by HarperCollins Canada.

Nominations for the IMPAC, offered by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, are put forward by public libraries around the world. Bergen’s book was nominated by the Newfoundland and Labrador Public Libraries in Gander, NL.

A winner will be named June 13.

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