Canadian author Michael Crummey has won the 2025 Dublin Literary Award, given annually to “a single work of international fiction, whether originally written in English or translated into it,” for his novel The Adversary.
Crummey’s win was announced by Emma Blain, the lord mayor of Dublin and patron of the award.
Crummey’s novel, published last February by Doubleday, follows the long rivalry between a brother and sister who own mercantile firms in early 19th-century Newfoundland. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the book “an enthralling masterpiece.”
In a citation, the judges for the award said, “Michael Crummey’s The Adversary compellingly and convincingly immerses its readers in a world previously lost to fiction, and almost lost to memory: a Newfoundland outport from the early years of the colony, connected to the world outside only by the occasional supply ship. In this vividly imagined, insular world, the narrative is driven by the animosity between two characters—a brother and sister—whose epic hatred for one another gives the novel an almost parable-like quality. The Adversary lastingly fills in a hitherto blank corner on our map of imagined past places.”
“I am absolutely overjoyed to have received this news,” Crummey said. “It was an honor to be included on the shortlist with so many exceptional writers. To have won the Dublin Literary Award leaves me thrilled and deeply, deeply grateful. It’s something I will carry with me always.”
The Dublin Literary Award, which comes with a cash prize of about $114,000, was established in 1996 and is presented by Dublin City Libraries. Past winners include Nicola Barker for Wide Open, Colum McCann for Let the Great World Spin, and Valeria Luiselli for Lost Children Archive.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
