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Outsider Beats Big Names for Booker Prize

Irish author Anne Enright wins with bleak family tale

By Sam Gale Rosen,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 16, 2007 7:18 PM CDT

(Newser) – Chalk up one for the little guy (or girl): Relative newcomer Anne Enright won this year's coveted Man Booker prize for best novel, fending off big names like Ian McEwan and Lloyd Jones. Prize chairman Sir Howard Davies blasted book reviewers at the event, saying they treat known authors with "kid gloves" while ignoring fresh talent.

Davis called Enright's novel, The Gathering, "a powerful, uncomfortable and even, at times, angry book—an unflinching look at a grieving family in tough and striking language." The Gathering beat out favorites On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, and Mr. Pip, by Lloyd Jones, as well as 3 other finalists, the Times reports.

Irish writer Anne Enright holds a copy of her book after she won the Man Booker fiction prize  for The Gathering, an uncompromising portrait of a troubled family that its author called the literary equivalent of a Hollywood weepie, in London Tuesday Oct. 16 2007.  Enright had been considered a...
Irish writer Anne Enright holds a copy of her book after she won the Man Booker fiction prize for "The Gathering," an uncompromising portrait of a troubled family that its author called the literary...   (Associated Press)
Author Ian McEwan speaks at the Sunday Book and Author Breakfast at BookExpo America, Sunday June 3, 2007 in New York. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)
Author Ian McEwan speaks at the Sunday Book and Author Breakfast at BookExpo America, Sunday June 3, 2007 in New York. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)   (Associated Press)
Irish writer Anne Enright holds a copy of her book after she won the Man Booker fiction prize  for The Gathering, an uncompromising portrait of a troubled family that its author called the literary equivalent of a Hollywood weepie, in London Tuesday Oct. 16 2007.  Enright had been considered a...
Irish writer Anne Enright holds a copy of her book after she won the Man Booker fiction prize for "The Gathering," an uncompromising portrait of a troubled family that its author called the literary...   (Associated Press)
The six shot listed finalists for the 2007 Mann Booker Prize for Fiction, from the left, Nicola Barker, 'Darkmans', Mohsin Hamid 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Indra Sinha 'Animal's People, Anne Enright 'The Gathering', Lloyd Jones' Mister Pip', and ian McEwan 'On Chesil Beach', during a media event  in London Tuesday Oct....
The six shot listed finalists for the 2007 Mann Booker Prize for Fiction, from the left, Nicola Barker, 'Darkmans', Mohsin Hamid 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Indra Sinha 'Animal's People, Anne Enright...   (Associated Press)
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