Toibin wins LA Times Book Award

Irish writer Colm Toibin has won the prestigious Los Angeles Times Book Award for his novel on the life of Henry James.

Toibin’s book ’The Master’, which scooped the award for fiction, was also short-listed last year for the Man Booker Prize.

His intense exploration of the life of writer James won the prize at the 25th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes in UCLA’s Royce Hall.

The Times citation described the novel as “an illumination of the very process of writing itself – a compelling, richly rewarding and utterly original work of fiction about family and friendship and art in the Modern Age”.

Journalist Harold Evans, an author and former president of Random House, led the ceremony which saw nine different awards given out.

Evans spoke out against what he termed the “tyranny of numbers” in which the success of a book is determined by the amount of sales it brings in.

’The Master’ was also previously short-listed for the WH Smith Award and The British Book Awards.

Toibin’s fifth novel concentrates on exploring a short period of James’s life from 1895-99 when he was writing works such as The Turn of the Screw and The Awkward Age.

In the novel, he visits Ireland, reacts with horror to the trial of Oscar Wilde, returns to Italy and makes peace with his brother.