US writer Michael Thomas wins IMPAC Dublin literary award for debut novel ‘Man Gone Down’

US writer Michael Thomas wins lucrative book prize

DUBLIN, Ireland — American writer Michael Thomas won one of the world’s most lucrative literary prizes Thursday for his debut novel “Man Gone Down.”

A panel of judges from Ireland, Britain, Switzerland and Canada named Boston-born Thomas, 41, the winner of the euro100,000 (US$140,000) IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

“Man Gone Down” follows a thirty-something African-American man, broke and estranged from his wife and three children, who has four days to keep his family afloat and reclaim his stake in the American Dream.

Irish writer James Ryan, one of the judges, said the novel was “brilliant in its scope and energy, and deeply moving in its human warmth.”

Ryan said readers never learn the name of the book’s central character, but “he lingers because this extraordinary novel comes to us from a writer of enthralling voice and startling insight.”

Thomas’s novel was selected from 145 books nominated by libraries around the world. The prize is open to any novel, whether English-language or translated, published in English in the preceding year.

“Man Gone Down” was chosen from a shortlist of eight books from the United States, France, India, Pakistan and Norway.

The other finalists were “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” by Junot Diaz; “The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles,” by Roy Jacobsen; “Ravel,” by Jean Echenoz: “Animal’s People,” by Indra Sinha; “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” by Mohsin Hamid; “The Archivist’s Story,” by Travis Holland; and “The Indian Clerk,” by David Leavitt.

The prize is run by Dublin’s public library system and financed by Improved Management Productivity and Control, a Florida-based management consultancy that has its European headquarters in Dublin.

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On the Net: www.impacdublinaward.ie