McGregor wins €100k Impac award

A British writer has scooped the largest prize in the world for a novel published in English.

Even the Dogs, by Jon McGregor, has been announced as the winner of the 2012 International Impac Dublin Literary Award and its €100,000 prize.

He beat competition from 146 other titles nominated by 162 public libraries from 45 countries.

Margaret Hayes, Dublin city librarian, said: “Even the Dogs is a worthy winner from a truly international shortlist.”

Mr McGregor, born in Bermuda, was raised in England and is the author of two other critically acclaimed novels.

The top 10 novels included authors from Australia (Jon Bauer), Brazil (Cristovao Tezza), the USA (Jennifer Egan, Karl Marlantes, and Willy Vlautin), Canada (David Bergen), Israel (Yishai Sarid), and Britain (Tim Pears, Animatta Forna, and McGregor).

Even the Dogs details the lives of a gathering of homeless addicts as they go about their daily forage for shelter, drink, or a fix.

It was nominated by Rudomino State Library for Foreign Literature in Moscow, Russia.