American author Michael Thomas was named the winner of the world's richest literary prize, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, in Dublin yesterday.
Thomas won the €100,000 award for his debut novel 'Man Gone Down', which tells the story of an African-American at a crossroads in his life and racing against time to find the money to keep his family from falling apart.
The IMPAC judges said the book was a "masterful debut" and described Thomas as "a writer of enthralling voice and startling insight".
Also nominated were: Junot Díaz ('The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao'), Jean Echenoz ('Ravel'), Mohsin Hamid ('The Reluctant Fundamentalist'), Travis Holland ('The Archivist's Story'), Roy Jacobsen ('The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles'), David Leavitt ('The Indian Clerk') and Indra Sinha ('Animal's People').
