The International Dublin Literary Award is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. It promotes excellence in world literature and is solely sponsored by Dublin City Council, Ireland. At €100,000, the award is one of the richest literary prizes in the world. Dublin City Public Libraries seek nominations from 400 public libraries from major cities across the world. Libraries can apply to be considered for inclusion in the nomination process

A list of this year's 49 longlisted titles has been nominated by 69 libraries from all over the world, including the Rijeka City Library.

Croatian writer Kristian Novak entered the list of titles competing for the award with a translation of the popular novel "Dark Mother Earth" in English.

According to the proposal of Rijeka City Library "Dark Mother Earth" is a brilliant novel suitable for the award: 

"Novak’s story is a dark and frightening one, taking us to mystical levels of reality and memory. We follow the story of a young, successful writer Matija, who is dealing with writer’s block. In search of inspiration, he turns to his childhood, which leads to a personal and emotional struggle with repressed, traumatic events. This exceptional story takes us on a difficult and sometimes disturbing journey one man must go on to confront buried sadness, fears, strange deaths, and local myths and legends, so he can finally be free from his perplexed past."

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The shortlist will be announced virtually on 25th March 2021 and the winner will be announced on 20th May 2021.