Up and Coming?

The winner of this year's IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is Rawi Hage for his novel De Niro's Game. The prize is not only extremely lucrative--$155,000--but it also has a good track record of predicting popular success. Last year's winner of the IMPAC was the runaway bestseller Out Stealing Horses.

De Niro's Game tells the story of two boys growing up amid the chaos of wartorn Beirut. London's Telegraph newspaper called it "vividly evocative of the chaos of conflict and the moral confusion of young men."--David E