DUBLIN: Michael Thomas’ 2007 novel Man Gone Down won this years £100,000 Dublin IMPAC Literary award, reputed to be the richest single prize offered for fiction in the world.

The book is more than appropriate for these tyring times, as it tells the story of a down-on-his-luck man with just four days to raise enough money to keep his family from disintegrating.

Thomas beat out a shortlist that included The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz; The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles by Roy Jacobsen; Ravel by Jean Echenoz, in translation; Animal’s People by Indra Sinha; The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Pakistani-American Mohsin Hamid; The Archivist’s Story by Travis Holland and The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt. In all, 145 books were nominated from libraries in 41 countries.

IMPAC, a management company based in Florida, also sponsors the IMPAC Young Writers Awards which are given to authors in the USA, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Malaysia and Thailand.

DETAILS: Are on the IMPAC Awards web site.