Paul Murray. Image: An Post Irish Book Awards
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘Evokes Ireland’s Complexities and Vagaries’
The author Paul Murray—having won the Eason Novel of the Year prize in Dublin for The Bee Sting (Penguin Random House / Hamish Hamilton)—overnight has won the An Post Irish Book of the Year, the top honor in this program that combines curated jurying and public votes to reach this final prize. The Book of the Year prize does not carry a cash award.
As we pointed out in our last story on it, this multi-sponsor program—named for Ireland’s postal service—effectively creates two shortlist challenges for the top winner. Each of its 20 categories goes through its own selection process to produce 20 category winners. The book of the year, then (not unlike the process used in the now-defunct Costa Book Award), is selected from a roster of six juried nominees.
Murray and his 643-page The Bee Sting were shortlisted contenders for this year’s Booker Prize for Fiction, which went to another Irish Paul, Paul Lynch, for Prophet Song—from Juliet Mabey‘s Oneworld Publications.
Prophet Song was also shortlisted for the An Post, but in this case Paul Murray, rather than Paul Lynch, came through to win the top fiction award at An Post and now its book of the year prize in 2016. And Murray has had considerable international acclaim for The Bee Sting, Jen Doll writing in August at The New York Times of Murray’s prose as “propulsive, insightful and seeded with hilarious observations.”
Madeleine Keane
Jury chair Madeleine Keane, speaking for the panel’s rationale, said, “Paul Murray is an exceptional contemporary Irish novelist as evidenced in his fine body of work, culminating in this dazzling achievement.
“The Bee Sting is a bravura feat, a wildly funny, tragic giant of a novel with a symphony of compelling voices.
“Murray evokes Ireland’s complexities and vagaries while taking in vital universal themes of love, greed, desire, and disappointment.
“Along with my fellow judges, I am very proud to see it crowned the most outstanding book of 2023.
Keane was joined on the jury this year by:
- Sinead Moriarty
- Rick O’Shea
- Cyril McGrane
- Elaina Ryan
- Tomás Kenny
The CEO of An Post, David McRedmond, during the course of last evening’s televised awards show, said, “Paul Murray’s novel was a standout in a great year for Irish fiction. The Bee Sting is marked by originality and beautiful writing; and it will stand the test of time.”
Last evening’s program was aired by RTE, Ireland’s national public-service news medium, and is available for review to those within its viewing area here.
An Post Irish Book of the Year: The 2023 Shortlist
Image: An Post Irish Book Awards
These are the six books nominated for the Book of the Year honor that went to Paul Murray:
- Strange Sally Diamond – Liz Nugent (Penguin Random House / Sandycove)
- The Bee Sting – Paul Murray (Penguin Random House / Hamish Hamilton)
- Poor – Katriona O’Sullivan (Penguin Random House / Sandycove)
- A Thread of Violence – Mark O’Donnell (Granta Books)
- I Am the Wind: Irish Poems for Children Everywhere – Edited by Lucinda Jacob and Sarah Webb, illustrated by Ashwin Chacko (Little Island Books)
- The Grass Ceiling – Eimear Ryan (Penguin Random House / Sandycove)
More from Publishing Perspectives on book and publishing awards is here, more on the Irish market is here, more on fiction is here, and more on publishing and Europe is here.