{"id":5417,"date":"2023-12-07T15:12:54","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T15:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniquemedia.ie\/?p=5417"},"modified":"2023-12-07T15:12:58","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T15:12:58","slug":"the-bee-sting-by-paul-murray-named-the-an-post-irish-book-of-the-year-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniquemedia.ie\/the-bee-sting-by-paul-murray-named-the-an-post-irish-book-of-the-year-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Bee Sting\u2019 by Paul Murray named the An Post Irish Book of the Year 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Winner revealed on one-hour television special on RT\u00c9 One<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2018The Bee Sting\u2019 <\/em>by Paul Murray has been announced as the overall \u2018An Post Irish Book of the Year 2023\u2019.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The book was among six titles competing for the accolade, all of which were category winners at the 2023 An Post Irish Book Awards and were chosen on the principle\u00a0of\u00a0the highest number of votes secured during the shortlist voting process across all categories.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Paul Murray\u2019s book, which was also shortlisted for The Booker Prize, was unveiled as the winning title during a one-hour special television show aired on RT\u00c9 One this evening hosted by Oliver Callan. Murray\u2019s book won the \u2018Eason Novel of the Year\u2019 at the recent An Post Irish Book Awards.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Described in The Guardian as a “brilliantly funny, deeply sad portrait of an Irish family in crisis”, Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting<\/em> attracted a chorus of unanimously\u00a0positive reviews on publication.\u00a0His elevation to the Booker Prize longlists and shortlists merely confirmed his inexorable rise from promising talent to a first-rank world novelist.\u00a0Murray combines a level of seriousness with an attractive strain\u00a0of humour which endears his work not just to critics and reviewers but to individual readers, an unbeatable combination.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Paul Murray was born and raised in South Dublin and wrote his first novel, \u2018An Evening of Long Goodbyes,\u2019 <\/em>while studying for a MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. \u2018An Evening of Long Goodbyes\u2019 <\/em>was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and nominated for Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. Murray\u2019s tragicomic masterpiece \u2018Skippy Dies\u2019<\/em> was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and longlisted for The Booker Prize. \u2018The Mark and the Void\u2019<\/em> was the joint winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize and was named one of Time\u2019s<\/em> Top 10 Fiction Books of the Year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The overall \u2018An Post Irish Book of the Year 2023\u2019 winner was decided by a distinguished panel of judges, including a literary editor, a bestselling novelist, a broadcaster with RT\u00c9, Director of International Trade with An Post, the CEO of Children\u2019s Books Ireland and a bookstore general manager.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The judging panel consisted of:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Madeleine Keane, Chair of the Judging Panel, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n “The Bee Sting was the judges’ unanimous choice as the An Post Book of the Year. Paul Murray is an exceptional contemporary Irish novelist as evidenced in his fine body of work, culminating in this dazzling achievement. The Bee Sting is a bravura feat – a wildly funny, tragic giant of a novel with a symphony of compelling voices. Murray evokes Ireland’s complexities and vagaries while taking in vital universal themes of love, greed, desire, and disappointment. Along with my fellow judges, I am very proud to see it crowned the most outstanding book of 2023.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The six nominated titles for the \u2018An Post Irish Book of the Year 2023\u2019 were:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In case you missed it, you can now watch the <\/strong><\/p>\n \u2018An Post Book of the Year\u2019 TV programme on the RT\u00c9 player<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n David McRedmond, CEO of An Post, said: <\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cPaul Murray\u2019s novel was a standout in a great year for Irish fiction. The Bee Sting is marked by originality and beautiful writing; and it will stand the test of time.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Previous winners of the An Post Irish Book of the Year Award <\/em>include Sally Hayden for My Fourth Time, We Drowned<\/em>, Fintan O\u2019Toole for We Don\u2019t Know Ourselves<\/em>, Doireann N\u00ed Ghr\u00edofa for A Ghost in the Throat,<\/em> the late Vicky Phelan for Overcoming,<\/em> Emilie Pine for Notes to Self<\/em>, John Crowley, Donal \u00d3 Drisceoil, Mike Murphy and John Borgonovo for Atlas of the Irish Revolution<\/em>, Mike McCormack for Solar Bones<\/em>, Louise O\u2019Neill for Asking For It<\/em>, Mary Costello for Academy St<\/em>, Donal Ryan for The Spinning Heart<\/em>, Michael Harding for Staring at Lakes<\/em>, and Belinda McKeon for Solace<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n