Congratulations to Edna O’Brien whose novel Girl was named winner of the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award 2020 yesterday.
The prize, which was announced during an online awards ceremony, is worth €15,000 to the winner.
Frank Hayes, representing sponsor Kerry Group, said: “In celebrating the 25th anniversary of our Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, we are pleased to salute the five shortlisted writers selected by Carol Drinkwater and Ian McGuire. Congratulations to each of them for their wonderful novels, which greatly augment the prestige of the literature of Ireland and most especially to our 2020 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award winner Edna O’Brien for her brave, compelling work GIRL.”
I have read four of the five shortlisted titles and would have been happy to see any one of those take the prize. That said, I’m thrilled Edna O’Brien won; Girl is a terrific, thought-provoking read. In my review, I described it as “an extraordinarily powerful tale, fast-moving, often confronting, but written with an exacting and sensitive eye”.
You can read the official press release here.
Reading Matters 
Excellent news, this will ensure that it’s widely read:)
Are you missing the days when you could just pop across to Dublin on the ferry for events like this?
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Well, this prize is announced in Co. Kerry so not really a ferry trip away. Only ever caught the ferry once, to Wexford. I don’t have sea legs. I get sea sick. (I also get car sick / bus sick / plane sick 🤢 I’m pathetic.)
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Oh… oh, that is a traveller’s curse. And yet you’ve been everywhere! I call that heroic, not pathetic.
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