Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Winner

The UK's Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2009 has been awarded to Colombian writer Evelio Rosero for his novel, The Armies by Evelio Rosero, translated by Anne McLean from the Spanish (Maclehose Press). Rosero is the first Colombian author to win the award. The £10,000 prize money is shared equally with his translator, Anne McLean, who picks up the award for the second time.

Description
Ismael is a retired school teacher in a small Colombian village. He gathers oranges, admires beautiful women and has an idyllic everyday life. When the village is ransacked by an anonymous army, he is thrown into the fray and his mental stability collapses. The tragedy which engulfs the inhabitants of this village has indeed become an everyday occurrence in this country. People are kidnapped; killed; they disappear at the hands of unidentified groups such as the armies of the title: Guerillas, Paramilitaries, narcotics traffickers. Instead of describing the reality of an unpredictable violent world, Rosero imitates it - with the dense, confused prose of a man going mad. Instead of portraying violence, he has created a violent novel. In this story, no-one is spared, no one is protected.

Review - courtesy Blackwell Book UK
Unquestionably one of the most important Latin American novels of the last few years - El Universal. ...a timeless epic...which intends to bear witness to the madness of a country adrift in the crossfire - El Pais. ... discomfiting evocation of the turmoil wrought on ordinary lives by conflict ... heart-wrenching - Metro. It is a story of horror and despair, beautifully told - Standpoint Magazine. The Armies is a swift and engaging piece of prose. In Anne McLean's fine translation, often beautifully rhythmic and economical, Ismael's voice brings the reader into the heart of the human experience - Evelio Rosero's book is all the more powerful for it - The Independent. Rosero's ability to depict vulnerability and insanity is unrivalled, and his style favours precision over description. He has that ability that distinguishes great writers: an ability to peer into the human heart. The result is a well-grounded narrative form with a strong sense of direction that carries the reader on its shoulders almost effortlessly - Latin American Review of Books. Rosero succeeds in bringing his characters to a human level that recalls Philip Roth's protagonists' physical degradation and the moral abyss depicted by J.M. Coetzee...A great achievement - El Periodico. An extremely polished novel that pulls readers into a sweet story that turns sour - Criticas.
About the Award
The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was inaugurated by British newspaper The Independent to honour fiction in translation in the United Kingdom. The award was first launched in 1990 and ran for five years before falling into abeyance. It was revived in 2001 with the support of Arts Council England. Entries (fiction or short stories) must be published in English translation in the UK in the year preceding the award and the author must be alive at the time that the translation is published.

Uniquely, the prize acknowledges both the winning novelist and translator, each being awarded £10,000.

Tragic maintains an award summary page at Literary Awards UK.