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You are > Home > Omaba’s current read is tops at Listowel festival
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Friday, June 05, 2009
Omaba’s current read is tops at Listowel festival
By Anne Lucey
THE prestigious €15,000 Kerry Group fiction award at the annual Listowel Writers’ Week has been won by a book currently being read by US President Barack Obama.
Netherland, by Joseph O'Neill, is a work described by the New York Times as "the wittiest, angriest, most exacting and most desolate work of fiction" about the city post the World Trade Centre disaster.
The five-day Listowel festival, now in its 39th year, was attended by 45year-old author O'Neill who lives in New York but is originally from Cork. He had been working as a barrister in London and New York for many years but since 2002 has been writing full-time.
Set in New York and London, the award-winning novel tells the story of a Dutchman living in the city and turning to the sport of cricket as an escape from his isolation.
The writer who flew in from New York to be at the prizegiving ceremony in Listowel remarked: "I suddenly understand what it is to be red-eyed. I have red eyes today."
He said he was "delighted and thrilled" to receive the award, especially as he had learned how to play golf at nearby Ballybunion golf links.
O'Neill, who plays the "unlikely" game of cricket in New York, also remarked how there was a strong tradition of cricket in Irish writing.
He distinctly remembered cricket passages penned by James Joyce Samuel Beckett. He has written two previous novels, along with a memoir, and the Listowel prize is his first major Irish award.
Officially launched by the actor Gabriel Byrne, the festival in Listowel heard readings from poet John Montague with contributions also from Colm Toibín, Giles Foden, David Park, Peter Murphy, broadcaster and Listowel native Eamon Keane, Sheila O’Flanagan and George Kimball
The adjudicators for the Kerry Group fiction award were Giles Foden and Killarney man Niall MacMonagle, the son of Lil and the late Seán MacMonagle, Lewis Road, who is now a teacher and author based in Dublin.
The shortlist of novels also included The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry, Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden, Disguise by Hugo Hamilton, and John the Revelator by Peter Murphy.
The packed festival programme included performances by playwrights and broadcasters, including Terry Jones of Monty Python fame, Jung Chang, Damon Galgut, Rebecca Miller, Dr Ivor Browne, Carol Drinkwater and James Kelman.
Festival chairman, Mike Lynch, paid tribute to David Marcus who passed away recently. Mr Marcus was a former president of Writers’ Week and champion for almost 70 years of the emerging Irish writer.
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