Literary Hub is pleased to announce the shortlist for the 12th annual American Library in Paris Award, which recognizes titles originally published in English “that best realizes new and intellectually significant ideas about France, the French people, or encounters with French culture.”
The American Library in Paris was established in 1920 with a core collection of books and periodicals donated by American libraries to United States armed forces personnel serving their allies in World War I. The Library has grown since then into the largest English-language lending library on the European continent.
The 2024 winner of the Book Award, which comes with a purse of $5,000, will be selected by an independent jury (Andrew Sean Greer (chair), Jonas Hassen Khemiri, and Ayelet Waldman) and announced on November 7.
In the meantime, here are the five finalists:
Robert Darnton, The Revolutionary Temper: Paris 1748–1789
(W. W. Norton US / Allen Lane UK)
“Well-written and well-shaped, this history gives a rich and interesting cultural perspective on the half century leading up to the social explosion of the French Revolution.”
Justine Firnhaber-Baker, House of Lilies: The Dynasty That Made Medieval France
(Allen Lane UK / Basic Books US)
“This is a fully immersive, wonderfully fluid and engaging popular history of the medieval Capetian dynasty in France.”
Claire Messud, This Strange Eventful History
(W. W. Norton US / Fleet UK)
“A beautifully written journey of a family through the 20th century, from the Second World War and the Algerian independence to today, the book evokes the difficult relationship one can have with one’s country of origin.”
Adam Shatz, The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Life of Frantz Fanon
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux US / Head of Zeus UK)
“This is a significant, readable, well-researched biography of Fanon and a brilliant, nuanced exploration of his ideas.”
Jackie Wullschläger, Monet: The Restless Vision
(Allen Lane)
“Finely executed, authentic and heartfelt, this solidly captured story conveys the essence of the time and place that forged his artistry while lovingly building a narrative of Monet’s evolution as a man and artist.”
