How Anna Burns’ Milkman perfectly articulated the experience of life during the Troubles
Colin Crummy, who grew up in South Armagh, explains how Anna Burns’ Booker winner Milkman held up a mirror to a world of suspicion, surveillance and groupthink
Monthly Spotlight: Milkman by Anna Burns
A tale of gossip, hearsay and silence, Anna Burns’ Milkman won the Booker Prize in 2018
Anna Burns was the first Northern Irish author to win the Booker Prize.
Along with the Booker, Milkman also won the 2019 Orwell Prize and the 2020 International Dublin Literary Award. Burns has written two other novels, No Bones and Little Constructions and a novella, Mostly Hero.
Set in 1970s Northern Ireland during the Troubles, Milkman follows an 18-year-old narrator, called middle sister. Rumours begin to surface in her community as a high-ranking paramilitary officer known as Milkman starts stalking her.
From a reading guide and extract to an exclusive interview with the author, find out more about our December Monthly Spotlight here.
Winner The Booker Prize 2018
- By
- Anna Burns
- Published by
- Faber & Faber
Anna Burns offers a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate ignorance. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences