On Canaan's Side
Award History
| Award | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction | 2012 | Winner |
| Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction | 2010 | Shortlist |
About This Book
Sebastian Barry's novel follows Lilly Bere, an Irish woman whose life has taken her from revolutionary Dublin to a long exile in America, as she mourns the death of her grandson and reviews the terrible losses of the century. Written in Barry's signature elegiac prose, the novel spans from the Irish War of Independence to the Iraq War. It won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction in 2012.
About the Author
Sebastian Barry is an Irish novelist, playwright, and poet widely regarded as one of Ireland's foremost living writers. Born in Dublin in 1955, he studied at Trinity College Dublin and has written across forms, producing an interconnected body of fiction and drama that revisits Irish history through the lives of fictional families — most notably the Dunne and McNulty clans. His novels include The Secret Scripture (2008), winner of the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Booker Prize; On Canaan's Side (2012), which won the Walter Scott Prize; Days Without End (2016), which also won the Walter Scott Prize (making him the only author to win that prize twice), the Costa Novel Award, and the Walter Scott Prize; and A Long Long Way (2005) and The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998). Read more →
