Last week, in the city of Leipzig, the winner of the EU Prize for Literature was announced. Along with it, 5 nominees received honorary mentions, and we are bursting with pride, since HLA’s Iida Rauma, with her novel Destruction, is among them!
Last year, a new format for the EUPL Prize was introduced: only one winner is now selected from all the nominees instead of each participating country having a winner. The initial book selection is conducted by national organisations, each entitled to submit one book that is of high literary quality with potential for translatability. A second round of selection is conducted by a seven-member European jury, who thus selects an overall Prize winner and five special mention awards.
You can read about all the nominees here.
Destruction, Rauma’s third novel, asks how one can write about oneself if one’s own self has been shattered. The novel won the most prestigious literary award in Finland, Finlandia Prize, last autumn, and has so far sold over 30,000 copies in Finland. It was also recently awarded the Blogistania Finlandia Award, the literature prize awarded by the Finnish book bloggers, bookstagramers and booktubers.
Foreign rights of Destruction have been sold to Sweden (Rámus).
Congratulations to the author!