01.02.2023

The Masterpiece listed for the Dublin Literature Award

Debut author Ana Schnabl has been honoured with a longlisting for her novel, The Masterpice 

The Dublin Literary Award is presented annually for a novel written in English or translated into English. The Award promotes excellence in world literature and is solely sponsored by Dublin City Council, and administered by Dublin City Libraries. Nominations are submitted by libraries in major cities throughout the world. The award is entering its 28th year. The Lord Mayor of Dublin is Patron of the Award.

Ana Schnabl's novel, The Masterpiece, translated from the Slovene by David Limon, is on the 2023 longlist. 

Nominating Library’s Comments:

The story’s main characters are the writer and his editor, who, despite being both married, are involved in a romantic relationship. A communist regime nearing its end serves as the setting for this thrilling love story. Ana has been passing the government damaging information about the authors she has come into contact with and Adam is her next target. Even though the novel is set during a certain period in Slovenian history, it only talks about it enough to whet our appetite for more.

What really interests the author and what she excels at showing is the human condition, the motivations and desires of her characters. In rich literary prose, she discusses the cost of personal autonomy and the explosive power of love. She also provides insight into the writing process and sheds light on a vital component of producing art with the aid of her protagonists. – Ljubljana City Library, Slovenia

Ana Schnabl (1985) belongs to a canon of creative and passionate authors, building on the legacy of great women writers and poets of the past and corecting injustices that the system has inflicted upon them. The Masterpiece is her first novel after a collection of short stories Razvezani for which she recived Best Literary Debut Prize at the annual Ljubljana Book fair in 2017. The Masterpiece is as much of a love story as a political drama. It takes place between 1985 – 1986, curious times in Yougoslavia. A time when country already began its disintegration and a time when the state still had a tight grip on the lives of its citizens through its security services and its web of informations. We follow a few months of lives of the protagonists – Adam, a professor of literature who is trying to become a writer again and Ana, an editor at the State Publishing House who receives his manuscript »The Masterpiece«. Soon they cross the line of their professional relationship which is under the watchful eye of the security – intelligence service and are forced to make critical decisions. Whith The Masterpiece, Ana Schnabl proved her stylistic exceptionality, you don’t skip lines with her. – Mariborska Libraries, Slovenia