Anna Burns wins the 2018 Man Booker Prize for Fiction

Congratulations to Anna Burns who has been named the winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize for Fiction!

Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, Milkman is a timely and original novel about a young woman trying to avoid the attentions of an influential and much older man – Milkman.

In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes ‘interesting’. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous…

Chair of 2018 judges, Kwame Anthony Appiah, says: ‘None of us has ever read anything like this before. Anna Burns’ utterly distinctive voice challenges conventional thinking and form in surprising and immersive prose. It is a story of brutality, sexual encroachment and resistance threaded with mordant humour.’

Readings’ marketing and events coordinator Ellen Cregan also praised this novel for its originality. She commented: ‘Burns’ prose style is perfect: a little bit experimental, a little bit stream of consciousness, not afraid of being weird, delightfully gossipy and incredibly smart. Milkman is an immersive reading experience.’

Burns is the first Northern Irish winner of this prestigious literary prize. (Previous Irish winners including John Banville, Anne Enright and Roddy Doyle all come from the Irish Republic.) She was shortlisted alongside Esi Edugyan, Daisy Johnson, Rachel Kushner, Richard Powers and Robin Robertson.

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a £50,000 prize literary prize awarded each year for the best original novel, written in the English language, and published in the UK. You can read more about the prize here.