The Millions

There are tons of literary awards out there, but last year I discovered one that caught my interest because of its international and journalistic focus. The Lettre Ulysses Award celebrates book-length reporting, and does not limit its scope to any single language or geographic area. The result is that a richly varied list of books is considered. Last year’s award went to Alexandra Fuller for her account of her travels with a white, African mercenary, Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier. This year’s longlist is out and once again it’s very eclectic:

• Die Hundeesser von Svinia (The Dog Eaters of Svinia) by Karl-Markus Gauss (Austria)
• The People on the Street by Linda Grant (Great Britain)
• Der Smaragdkonig. Victor Carranza und das grune Gold der Anden (The Emerald Czar: Victor Carranza and the Green Gold of the Andes) by Jeanette Erazo Heufelder
• The Deurbanization of Lvov & A Week in Kishinev, part of a series of texts on the decline of post-Soviet cities by Igor Klekh (Russia)
• Pais de plomo. Cronicas de guerra (Country of Bullets. War Diaries) by Juanita Leon (Colombia)
• The Story of “Freezing Point” by Li Datong (China)
• Operacao Araguaia: os arquivos secretos da Guerrilha (Operation Araguaia: The Secret Archives of a Guerrilla War) by Tais Morais & Eumano Silva (Brazil)
• Voyage aux pays du coton. Petit precis de mondialisation (Journey to the Lands of Cotton: A Brief Manual of Globalisation) by Erik Orsenna (France)
• The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq by George Packer (USA)
• Beirut shi mahal: an Egyptian in Lebanon by Youssef Rakha (Egypt)
• Chasing the Monk’s Shadow: A Journey in the Footsteps of Xuanzang by Mishi Saran (India)
• An Iraqi in Paris by Samuel Shimon (Iraq)
• Biz Burada Devrim Yapiyoruz Sinyorita (We are Making a Revolution Here, Signorita) by Ece Temelkuran (Turkey)
• Forget Kathmandu: An Elegy for Democracy by Manjushree Thapa (Nepal)
• Faith at War: A Journey on the Frontlines of Islam, from Baghdad to Timbuktu by Yaroslav Trofimov (Ukraine)
• The Long March
• Genius loci by Peter Vail (Russia)
• Cosecha de mujeres: Safari en el desierto mexicano (Harvest of Woman. Safari in the Mexican Desert) by Diana Washington Valdez (Mexico/USA)
• ‘What Kind of God’: A Survey of the Current Safety of China’s Food by Zhou Qing (China)