International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

Man Gone Down,the debut novel by Michael Thomas, won the €100,000 (US$141,400) International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the world's richest literary prize. The press release reports that "the winning novel, first published by Grove Atlantic, USA, and a New York Times top ten book of 2007, was chosen from a shortlist of eight, which included novels from the USA, France, India, Pakistan and Norway." The book, which was published in the U.K. this year, emerged from an international longlist "145 titles, nominated by 157 public libraries from 41 countries."

The judging panel observed: "We never know his name. But the African-American protagonist of Michael Thomas' masterful debut, Man Gone Down, will stay with readers for a long time. He lingers because this extraordinary novel comes to us from a writer of enthralling voice and startling insight. Tuned urgently to the way we live now, the winner . . . is a novel brilliant in its scope and energy, and deeply moving in its human warmth.”

The shortlist included The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz, The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles by Roy Jacobsen, Ravel by Jean Echenoz, Animal's People by Indra Sinha, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, The Archivist's Story by Travis Holland, and The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt.