Pacific Northwest Booksellers recognized Idaho author Emily Ruskovich’s talent with a 2018 PNBA Award for her debut novel, Idaho, and the world is catching on.
Ruskovich won the Dublin Literary Award, the largest literary prize (€100,000) for a single novel published in English. Idaho won out over 140 other books nominated by public librarians around the world.
Idaho was nominated by the public library in Brugge, Belgium, who commented:
‘This special debut novel is a real gem because of the atmosphere as well as the special structure of the novel. Ann Mitchell and her husband Wade live on a woody mountain in Idaho. We know from the beginning that the ex-wife is in prison and the two daughters are dead or missing. It’s difficult to unravel the mystery because Wade suffers from a kind of dementia. What had happened and why? Emily Ruskovich leaves bread crumbs by means of different stories. It’s nice to zig zag through time in a world of multiple truths. Toward the end the stories become shorter and supported by the long descriptions of the lonely, sinister and misty landscape.’
–The Dublin Literary Award press release
Congratulations, Emily Ruskovich!
(Click here for an article about the win accompanied by a great photo of the author with her award.)