Colm Toibin Wins World's Richest Literary Prize

Posted on June 14, 2006

Irish author Colm Toibin has won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his novel, The Master, which makes him the first Irish writer to win the lucrative prize. The winner receives 100,000 Euros, which is the largest literary prize in the world for a single work of fiction.

The Master is a novel about novelist Henry James. It was chosen from 10 short listed books and a long list of 132 titles. The judges praised Toibin for his "crisp, modulated writing."

The judges of the prize included Andrew O'Hagan and Italian poet Paolo Ruffilli. The judges said of Toibin's work, "This probing portrayal of Henry James is not merely an outstanding narrative....Its preoccupations are truth and the elusiveness of intimacy, and from such preoccupations emerge this patient, beautiful, exposure of loss, and the price of the pursuit of perfection."

Which is a lovely thing to have said about one's work, although the 100,000 Euro prize ($133,000 U.S.) isn't to be sneezed at.

The Master was also shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker prize.