Paul Murray's first novel, An Evening of Long Goodbyes, was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award in 2003. He
studied English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin, and has a Master's
degree in creative writing from the University of East Aglia. Following the British
publication of the critically acclaimed Skippy Dies, the Daily Telegraph named him one of the best British novelists under
40 (even though he's actually Irish). Skippy Dies has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and is to be
adapted for the big screen by Neil Jordan (The
Crying Game). It will be published in the
U.S. by Faber & Faber on September 10, 2010.
On your nightstand now:
I just finished Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier and am trying to decide between Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey and Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. They're both quite long so I may end up reading The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, although summer seems to have passed Ireland by this year. I'm also looking forward to A Life Apart by Neel Mukherjee.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Winnie the Pooh. The Christopher Robin stuff was pretty painful, but all the other characters are great and the jokes still make me laugh.
Your top five authors:
Different writers have been important to me at different times of my life. I love all the Irish classics--Joyce, Beckett, Yeats, Wilde. Kafka, J.D. Salinger, William Gaddis, Lorrie Moore, David Foster Wallace made me want to be a writer when I was in my 20s. Roland Barthes I find myself coming back to again and again. The American poet James Merrill I think is amazing. Daniel Clowes. Everything by Ali Smith radiates intelligence and love.
Book you've faked reading:
I don't really lie about reading books, but I do feel guilty about having books on my shelf I know I'm never going to read. For example, I read 250 pages of the 1,200-page The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil, and I knew I was never going to finish it. Now I can feel it glowering down on me from the bookcase, doing kind of a Banquo's ghost thing.
Books you're an evangelist for:
Independent People by Halldor Laxness; The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud; A Goat's Song by Dermot Healy--these are all very special books. A couple of months ago I read The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton, which I thought was outstanding.
Book you've bought for the cover/book that changed your life:
I read Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon when I was 20 and I really do think it changed me. I have about three or four copies of it. The Penguin Classics one with the blue cover is one of my favourite designs. The designer for Skippy Dies is named Leanne Shapton. I think she's a genius, all of her covers are just beautiful.
Favorite line from a book:
Beckett, Worstward Ho: "All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
I read Black Hole by Charles Burns a couple of years ago, an astonishing graphic novel. Reading it is like disappearing into a black hole, and coming out somewhere strange and totally new.