Mike McCormack wins International Dublin Literary Award

Irish author Mike McCormack won the €100,000 International Dublin Literary Award earlier this week for his novel Solar Bones, published by Tramp Press. “Formally ambitious, stylistically dauntless and linguistically spirited,” the judges’ citation declared, “Solar Bones is a novel of extraordinary assurance and scope.” If not quite a rags to riches story, it is a tale of recognition and renown after a career of great early promise was derailed by rejection by mainstream publishers.

In the Society of Authors’ awards announcements, Valerie O’Riordan and Chris Connolly were shortlisted for the Tom-Gallon Trust Award for short stories; and Yes by Anne Patterson, from Co Armagh, was shortlisted for the McKitterick Prize awarded to a first novel by a writer over 40. The four prizes will be awarded at the Authors’ Awards on July 19th.

In tomorrow’s Irish Times books pages, Joseph O’Neill talks to Catherine Conroy about his new short story collection and attending Donald Trump’s wedding, Breandán Mac Suibhne and fellow historian Jonathan Wooding join forces to track down an Irish informer in Australia; plus the following reviews: Tanya Sweeney on Girl With Dove by Sally Bayley; Paschal Donohoe on Edge of Chaos by Dembisa Moyo; John Boyne on History of Violence by Edouard Louis; Desmond Traynor on Emer Martin’s The Cruelty Men; Henrietta McKervey on Rage-In by Tara Flynn; Conor O’Callaghan on Notes from the Cevennes by Adam Thorpe; Sarah Gilmartin on Social Creatures by Tara Isabella Burton; Liam Cagney on All Gates Open: The Story of Can; Eamon Maher on Paris, Capital of Irish Culture: France, Ireland and the Republic, 1798-1916; Jonathan McAloon on Jott by Sam Thompson; Declan Hughes on the best new crime fiction; Seán Hewitt on Lucia by Alex Pheby; and Julie Parsons on Primary Colors by Anonymous.