JG Farrell has won the Lost Man Booker Prize for his novel Troubles. The winner was chosen by the international reading public in an online vote, and the award was presented by Lady Antonia Fraser at a reception on 19 May. The author’s brother, Richard Farrell, was present to accept the award on his behalf. Support for JG Farrell was tremendous with Troubles taking 38% of the vote and more than twice as many votes as any other shortlisted title.
The Lost Man Booker is a one-off prize to honour the books which missed out on the opportunity to win the Booker Prize in 1970. In 1971, just two years after it began, the Booker Prize ceased to be awarded retrospectively and became – as it is today – a prize for the best novel of the year of publication. As a result a wealth of fiction published for much of 1970 fell through the net. The shortlist also featured titles by Nina Bawden, Shirley Hazzard, Mary Renault, Muriel Spark and Patrick White.
Troubles is the blackly comic tale of an English Major who travels to Ireland to meet the woman he believes he may be engaged to marry. The engagement is short-lived, but the Major is unable to detach himself from the alluring discomforts of the crumbling Majestic Hotel, and he passes the summer unaware of the gathering storm. This is Ireland in 1919 – and the struggle for independence is about to explode with brutal force.
JG Farrell previously won the Booker Prize in 1973 for The Siege of Krishnapur.
Troubles is available in paperback.
