‘The validation that prizes give is what you really want’

The English novelist Jim Crace has won the 20th Impac Dublin Literary Award, for his novel Harvest. The €100,000 prize is the largest for a novel published in English.

Crace, 69, told the Irish Examiner: “I’ve been very lucky with prizes. But the thing about prizes is that, when you talk about a prize-winning author, you can be talking about one that is well-regarded, but doesn’t sell any books. The thing about this prize is that it sells books, it finds readers. For a start, there’s no question at all but that I’ll have a bigger readership in Ireland, which is a dear thing to me.

“For me, that’s the great thing about the prize. I know the money is important, but, actually, the validation of your career that prizes give is what you really want. But the money is fabulous, too,” he said.