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The
2005 Award
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Alva & Irva by Edward Carey
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Nominated by:
Publisher
of Nominated Editions: |
| the complete A-Z listing of nominated authors |
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ABOUT
THE BOOK
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| Alva
and Irva Dapps are identical twin sisters who live in the city of Entralla.
Like the Emerald City, Gondal, and Brobdingnag, only one guidebook to the
place exists, and this novel is it. Alva is by nature an explorer: she longs to travel the world. Irva is a recluse for whom stepping outside the house is an ordeal. Yet the twins feel each other's emotions, think each other's thoughts, love and hate and suffer as one--they cannot survive without one another. And thereby hangs an inventive tale of creativity, obsession, and genius bred by necessity. When Irva refuses to leave the house, Alva, in an attempt to return her to life, brings the city of Entralla into their shared home; she wanders its streets, observing, taking notes, measuring, and brings her findings to Irva, who painstakingly constructs a miniature Entralla. Their masterwork is a city whose scale accommodates both their desires, a city that comes to serve Entralla in a way its creators never could have imagined. |
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
| Edward Carey was born in 1970, in England. Five of his plays have been produced in London, Romania, and Lithuania. He has also worked as a set designer and illustrator. His first novel, Observatory Mansions, was published in 2001. He lives in Paris. |
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