The 2008 International IMPAC Dublin Award winner was announced Thursday morning. The £100,000 cash prize (almost $200,000) — the biggest for fiction published in English — goes to Canadian author Rawi Hage for "De Niro's Game," a debut novel about two childhood friends growing up in Beirut who, when they come of age, must decide whether to stay in their troubled city or abandon it for an expatriate existence.
Hage was born in Beirut and lived through nine years of civil war in Lebanon. The book was chosen from 137 titles, nominated by 162 libraries in 45 countries. Past winners include Colm Tóibín for "The Master" and Per Petterson for "Out Stealing Horses."
Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times book critic
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