John Banville Wins Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature

A peerless prose stylist, John Banville has won most of the major Irish and British book awards and many of the best international prizes, including the Lannan Literary Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Austrian State Prize for European Literature, and now the Prince of Asturias Prize. Of his sixteen novels, The Untouchable [and Kindle] is the only one with a gay protagonist, loosely based on Anthony Blunt. In his spare time Banville writes plays, stories, criticism, screenplays (including the queer Albert Nobbs), and, so far, eight mysteries under the name Benjamin Black. The most recent of those, The Black-Eyed Blonde, deftly channels Raymond Chandler and brings back Philip Marlowe. Listen to this:

"It was one of those summer Tuesday afternoons when you begin to wonder if the earth has stopped revolving. The telephone on my desk had the look of something that knows it’s being watched. Traffic trickled by in the street below, and there were a few pedestrians, too, men in hats going nowhere.”

 

Comments

[Sandy]

Thank you, once again, for broadening my reading horizons. Went to the library last night, took home 'The Untouchable' and stayed up late engrossed. Now, it seems, I have to read 'Buddenbrooks,' too. No problem.