Margaret Atwood projects us into a less-than-brave new world, an outlandish yet wholly believable space populated by a cast of memorable characters.
The Man Booker Prize 2003
DBC Pierre
With Vernon God Little, DBC ‘Dirty But Clean’ Pierre brings a heady whiff of the bad boy, a quirky nom-de-plume, and a winner’s soul-cleansing act of contrition to the prize.
The rackety personal history of DBC Pierre – real name Peter Warren Finlay – was the main talking point in the aftermath of his win, rather than the merits of his novel. The itinerant Australian admitted that he had spent the best part of his twenties in drug-induced catalepsy, financed by fleecing his friends.
He said a large part of the £50,000 would go to paying off those debts. Unsurprisingly, his novel, about a young Texas boy in trouble with the law, has the smack of authenticity.
Winner The Booker Prize 2003
- By
- DBC Pierre
- Published by
- Faber & Faber
In DBC Pierre’s darkly comic debut novel, an acerbic, foul-mouthed 15-year-old boy goes on the run after a mass shooting at his Texas high school.
The Shortlist
Damon Galgut’s powerful tale of an unlikely friendship in an uneasy time, set in a dilapidated rural hospital in post-apartheid South Africa.
By Damon Galgut
When a lonely schoolteacher writes an account of her friend’s affair, she reveals more than she intends in Zoë Heller’s gripping psychological drama.
By Zoë Heller
Clare Morrall’s insightful debut tells of identity struggles, the approach of breakdown - and the optimism of an eccentric, loving marriage.
In DBC Pierre’s darkly comic debut novel, an acerbic, foul-mouthed 15-year-old boy goes on the run after a mass shooting at his Texas high school.
By DBC Pierre
An epic yet intimate novel set in the Asian community in London’s East End, full of warm humour and strikingly imagined by Monica Ali.
By Monica Ali
