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McBride wins Desmond Elliott Prize 2014

Irish author Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-formed Thing (Text) has won the £10,000 (A$18,350) Desmond Elliott Prize 2014. Chair of judges Chris Cleave said the debut novel is the kind ‘that is written once in a generation and takes the art to an entirely new place’ and ‘stands shoulder-to-shoulder with The Catcher in the Rye, Lolita and The Road as a masterpiece that some love and some loathe, but which has a greatness that few will deny’. Cleave said, ‘it is the most untamed, most expertly crafted, most daring, most challenging and most moving human story I’ve read in years. Its language pulsates and adapts, disintegrating and resolving at will. Above all it is a seditious act of storytelling that does what only the greatest works of fiction do: irresistibly it pulls you in to the story, leans close to your ear and whispers you something true about yourself’. Also shortlisted for the award were The Letter Bearer (Robert Allison, Granta) and Ballistics (D W Wilson, Bloomsbury). As previously reported by Books+Publishing, McBride won the Baileys Women’s Prize worth £30,000 (A$55,050) for A Girl is a Half-formed Thing in June.

 

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Category: International news