It seems to be the season for European culture awards and hard on the heels of the Lux film prize, yesterday we had the European book prize.
Divided into two sections, essays, ie non-fiction, and novels, the prize was awarded last night in the European Parliament. The shortlisted works, seven in each section, were heavily biased towards French, so it would be very doubtful if an English readership had ever heard of them. However, just in case you want to know L’Europe pour les Nuls (roughly translated as The Idiots Guide to Europe by Sylvie Goulard won the first category while the winner in the fiction section was Gottland by Polish author Mariusz Szczygiel.
The factual book is, in the words of its creator, un livre communautaire, which essentially puts forward the benefits of the European Union. Gottland is another matter altogether. Written by a Pole about Czechs, it looks at those who suffered under Facism and Communism, and is, to quote this particular author, a work of “Polish literary reportage”.
The works were judged by a distinguished panel, chaired by Ezio Mauro, the editor of the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, which included our very own polyglot Denis MacShane. It was good to see Denis yesterday evening and have a chat about politics, as you do.
I have to say I am quite dubious about the value of a European book prize. It is not like the Man Booker, the Orange or the Whitbread awards, in that the field spans Europe from east to west, not to mention 20 or so different languages. Maybe this is why the UK involvement is so slight. That could also be because the market for books in English is so large that writers and publishers see little point in entering their work for a European prize.
If we are to continue with the European Book Prize, I do think it needs to be opened out with shortlists reflecting the whole range of European output. The last few years have seen books becoming much more accessible. The European Book Prize should reflect this.
Mary, I think that you are quite right to be dubious about the value of the European Book Prize. I have always felt that the role of politicians regarding the arts is one which should be ‘at arm’s length and should be confined to the allocating the money needed and leave others to get on with it. This particular prize has such a such a close involvement of politicians that it is difficult to see how any objectivitiy can be maintained. It is very hard to see for instance how a book like Matha Andreason ‘Brussels Laid Bare’ would ever get anywhere near the short list.