Bullaun Press wins Republic of Consciousness prize for ‘rollicking picaresque’ novel

‘Her tragi-comedy novel disrupts the tired trope of the trauma novel’ … Gaëlle Bélem. Photograph: F. Mantovani - Gallimard COUL

Irish publisher Bullaun Press has won the Republic of Consciousness prize for small presses with the book There’s a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem, translated from French by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert.

There’s a Monster Behind the Door is a “rollicking, sardonic picaresque”, said judge Houman Barekat. “The novel has important things to say about colonialism and society, but it’s also tremendous fun – darkly funny, acerbic, energetic.”