Melville House Books

Alain Mabanckou

More news from the Israeli International Book Fair. Following on the heals of Haruki Murakami’s win of the Jerusalem Priz, reported earlier on Mobylives, Agence France Presse reports that Alain Mabanckou has won the French-Israeli Literary Prize for his novel, Broken Glass.

First published in France in 2005 by Editions Seuil, the Hebrew translation was published in 2008 by Matar Editions to great sucess. The novel follows the lives of a group of colorful characters, all patrons of a Congolese bar.

The French-Israeli Literary Prize was created to recognize either a French author translated into Hebrew, or an Israeli author translated into French, with the intent of fostering “mutual understanding between the two cultures.”

Valerie Merians is the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.