Booker Prize 2007: the winner is Anne Enright with " The Gathering"

Il Man Booker Prize, il prestigioso e ambito premio letterario di lingua inglese è stato assegnato quest'anno a Anne Enright, 45 anni.
La scrittrice irlandese si è aggiudicata il riconoscimento, comprensivo di un assegno di 50mila sterline, per il romanzo The Gathering.
Questo è il quarto romanzo di Anne Enright ed è una saga familiare che attraversa tre generazioni «Noi pensiamo che questo romanzo segnerà il nostro tempo e ne sentiremo parlare anche in futuro - ha detto sir Howard Davies, presidente della giuria, annunciando la vincitrice durante una cerimonia a Londra - La conclusione del romanzo è assai brillante e le ultime frasi sono tra le migliori che io abbia mai letto».

Il Man Booker Prize è assegnato al miglior romanzo dell'anno scritto in inglese da uno scrittore del Commonwealth e della Repubblica d'Irlanda.
La Enright ha vinto sconfiggendo il grande favorito Ian McEwan, già premiato nel 1998, in gara quest'anno con On Chesil Beach e il romanziere neozelandese Lloyd Jones, in finale con Mister Pip.

(tratto da:http://www.ilmessaggero.it/articolo.php?id=11245&sez=HOME_SPETTACOLO)

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Anne Enright was named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for her novel The Gathering, published by Jonathan Cape.
Enright, 45, is the second Irish woman to win the prize, joining compatriots Iris Murdoch, Roddy Doyle and John Banville who won the prize in 1978, 1993 and 2005 respectively.
Chair of the judges, Howard Davies, made the announcement, which was broadcast live on the BBC Ten O’ Clock News, at the awards dinner at the Guildhall, London.
Howard Davies said:
’The Gathering is an unflinching look at a grieving family. It’s the bleakness of one woman’s vision, a bleakness rooted in her family, her marriage and the death of her brother.’
Davies said that the winning title was a ‘powerful, uncomfortable and even at times angry book’ but went on to explain that the family epic was a ‘very readable and satisfying novel’.
Anne Enright admitted that ‘when people pick up a book they may want something that will cheer them up, in that case they shouldn’t really pick up my book… my book is the equivalent of a Hollywood weepie.’
Howard Davies confirmed that the judges’ decision had been unanimous.
He divulged that when they had put The Gathering on the longlist they ‘didn’t expect it to emerge as a winner.’ He went on to say, ‘It is a very intense piece of writing which does repay re-reading.’

Anne Enright was born in Dublin where she continues to live and work.
She is the author of three previous novels: The Wig My Father Wore (1995), What Are You Like? (2000) and The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch (2002). Reviewers have called her winning book ‘distinctive’ in its ‘exhilarating bleakness’.

(http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1004)