British writer Jon McGregor has won the prestigious 2012 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his third novel, Even the Dogs (M).
The international judges said:
"Even the Dogs is a fearless experiment which shows us in close-up detail the lives of a gathering of homeless addicts as they go about their daily forage for shelter, drink or a fix. In a masterpiece of narrative technique, the viewpoint shifts and morphs through the lives of a handful of derelicts who stumble and fall, stumble and fall as they seek to redeem themselves from addiction, homelessness and those impulses which too often rise up within them and defeat their best interests…."
Even the Dogs was nominated by M.I. Rudomino State Library for Foreign Literature, Moscow, Russia.
Here is the proud publisher's description:
Here is the proud publisher's description:
“They break down the door at the end of December and carry his body away”
On a still and frozen day between Christmas and New Year, a man’s body is found lying in his ruined flat. Found, and then taken away, examined, investigated and cremated.
As the state begins its detailed, dispassionate inquest, the man embarks on his last journey through a world he has not ventured into, alive, for years. In his wake, a series of fractured narratives emerge from squats and alleyways across the city: the short and stark story of the man, and of his friends who look on from the shadows, keeping vigil as the hours pass, paying their own particular homage.
As they watch, their stories unfurl layer by layer; stories of lives fallen through the cracks, hopes flaring and dying, love overwhelmed by a stronger need, and the havoc wrought by drugs, distress, and the disregard of the wider world.
Jon McGregor is just the third British author to win the prize. It was awarded to Andrew Miller (M) in 1999 for Ingenious Pain and to Nicola Barker in 2000 for Wide Open. (M).
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