Beating favorites Julian Barnes and Kazuo Ishiguro, Irish author John
Banville won the £50,000 Man Booker Prize, the U.K.'s top literary
award, for The Sea. The prize was presented last night. Knopf had planned to publish the book here in March, although now The Sea may see publication sooner.
Former literary editor of the Irish Times, Banville is the first Irishman to win the prize since Roddy Doyle in 1993. Quoted by the Times of London, judges chairman John Sutherland called The Sea "a masterly study of grief, memory and love recollected. You feel you're in the presence of a virtuoso. In his hands, language is an instrument." He added that the melancholy subject made it a "slit-your-throat novel." The Sea tells the story of Max Morden, who after his wife dies, revisits the town where as a child, his life changed forever.
Banville was on the Booker shortlist in 1989 for The Book of Evidence, but lost to Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day. This year Ishiguro was on the shortlist for Never Let Me Go.
Now onto the Nobel literature award, which will be announced on Thursday.
Former literary editor of the Irish Times, Banville is the first Irishman to win the prize since Roddy Doyle in 1993. Quoted by the Times of London, judges chairman John Sutherland called The Sea "a masterly study of grief, memory and love recollected. You feel you're in the presence of a virtuoso. In his hands, language is an instrument." He added that the melancholy subject made it a "slit-your-throat novel." The Sea tells the story of Max Morden, who after his wife dies, revisits the town where as a child, his life changed forever.
Banville was on the Booker shortlist in 1989 for The Book of Evidence, but lost to Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day. This year Ishiguro was on the shortlist for Never Let Me Go.
Now onto the Nobel literature award, which will be announced on Thursday.