Having chosen four of the same titles as the official panel, the Shadow Panel (Stu, Lisa, Mark, Gary and myself) opted for two others to complete the full half-dozen, and then set about deciding which was to take out the prize...
Our road took us on a long journey through many times and lands. We spent a bizarre time in an ever-shifting, nineteenth-century German town, working on translations and kissing the local girls. We moved onto a dark exploration of Communist-era Hungary (and an even darker examination of human souls...). We went for walks around the rainy city of Barcelona, and then flew off to Dublin for a Bloomsday jaunt. We witnessed an extraordinary dinner party in Albania - and its consequences ten years on. We followed a boy from the Siberian wilds on his trip to Helsinki and watched as he encountered civilisation in all its forms. We fled to Wales (seeking some solitude) and shared a woman's house - but not her secrets...
Then we came back to earth with a bump. There were discussions, disagreements, grudging acceptance, and then a decision...
Our choice for the winner of the 2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize is:
Congratulations to the writer and translators - Dublinesque is a great book, and it would be a worthy winner of the real prize. So, can it do the double? We'll find out very soon...
