A debut novelist who was born and raised in Boston and lives in New York has been chosen from nearly 150 nominees from 41 countries as winner of this year's IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Michael Thomas won the prize—worth 100,000 euros, or nearly 140,000 dollars—for his first novel, Man Gone Down (Grove, 2007). He beat eight semifinalists, including Junot Díaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao), Mohsin Hamid (The Reluctant Fundamentalist), and David Leavitt (The Indian Clerk).
“This year, as has been the case so many times in the past, readers from every corner of the world have uncovered wonderful novels that otherwise may never have grasped public attention," Dublin mayor Éibhlin Byrne said yesterday.
Previous winners of the award, given annually since 1996 for a single work of fiction published in English, include Colm Tóibín for The Master and Edward P. Jones for The Known World. Rawi Hage won last year for his debut novel, De Niro's Game.