Germany’s International Literature Award (Haus der Kulturen der Welt) has been awarded to Canadian author Dany Laferrière and translator Beate Thill for Das Rätsel der Rückkehr, which appeared as The Return (Douglas & McIntyre) in 2011. (The novel was first published by Les Éditions du Boréal in 2009 as L’énigme du retour.) The annual prize, which recognizes German-language translations of international books, is accompanied by €25,000 for the winning author and €10,000 for the winning translator.

The jury called Laferrière’s novel “an effortless soliloquy” and the author’s “most personal and, at the same time, his most literarily successful book.”

This year’s six-book shortlist also featured fellow Canadian Madeleine Thien for Almuth Carstens’ German translation of Dogs at the Perimeter, published in Canada by McClelland & Stewart in 2011.

The award ceremony will take place in Berlin on July 3.