The Utopiales Européen Prize is awarded as part of the Utopiales International Science Fiction Festival held in Nantes. Ajvaz received the award for the French edition of The Other City, translated by Benoit Meunier and published in April 2015 as L’autre ville by Mirobole Editions.

The distinctive novel is set in various shadowy settings about Prague, such as the belfry of St. Nicholas’s church, Petřín hill, a Malá strana café, Café Slavia, and the large Klementinum historical library. These are the places where a lonely young man walks at the ghostly hours of night and where flashes of the symbolic Other City emerge mingled with the reality of old Prague. All this is veiled in a dreamy atmosphere, the mysterious contents of which draw the narrator like a moth to a flame.

More information about the award can be found on the official website.