Enright’s ‘The Gathering’ Wins Booker Prize

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The New York Sun

LONDON — An Irish writer, Anne Enright, won the Man Booker fiction prize today for “The Gathering,” an uncompromising portrait of a troubled family.

She is the second Irish writer to win the prize in the past three years, after John Banville’s “The Sea” in 2005.

Ms. Enright had been considered a long-shot to take Britain’s most prestigious, and contentious, literary trophy. The award, which carries a prize of $100,000, was bestowed during a ceremony at London’s medieval Guildhall.

“The Gathering” is a family epic set in England and Ireland, in which a brother’s suicide prompts 39-year-old Veronica Hegarty to probe her family’s troubled, tangled history. The judges praised it as “a very accomplished and dramatic novel of family relationships and personal breakdown.”

Ms. Enright said people looking for a cheery read should not pick up her book. “It is the intellectual equivalent of a Hollywood weepy,” she said.

The chairman of the judging panel, Howard Davies, acknowledged the book was “a little bleak” in places, but praised it as “a very readable novel.”

“Anne Enright has written a powerful, uncomfortable and, at times, angry book. ‘The Gathering’ is an unflinching look at a grieving family in tough and striking language,” he said.

Ms. Enright said the book’s focus on family was a classically Irish theme.

“I think family is a hugely interesting place, it’s a place where stories happen. … And it’s also a central Irish institution,” Ms. Enright said, acknowledging she felt a bit “trembly” when she heard she had won.

Jonathan Ruppin of British bookstore Foyles called the judges’ choice “a welcome boost for serious literature.”

“Not everyone will be comfortable with this bleak account of conflict and despair, but the writing is undeniably exquisite,” he said.

Ms. Enright, 45, has published three previous novels, two short-story collections and the nonfiction book “Making Babies: Stumbling Into Motherhood.”

Her victory was another surprise from an award renowned for unpredictable results. Bookmakers had made Ms. Enright the rank outsider to win, with bookies William Hill giving her 20-1 odds.

Betting on literary prizes — as well as on television reality shows, election results and potential royal weddings — is a long-standing tradition in Britain. “Mister Pip” by New Zealand’s Lloyd Jones and British novelist Ian McEwan’s “On Chesil Beach” had been strongly favored.

But the Booker judges have a history of defying the odds when awarding the prize, which usually brings a huge sales boost for the winner. The favorite has not won since 2002, when Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi” took the prize.


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