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Paul Murray (author)

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Paul Murray
Born1975 (age 48–49)
Dublin, Ireland
OccupationWriter
EducationBlackrock College
Alma materTrinity College, Dublin; University of East Anglia
Period2003–present
GenreComic fiction
Notable worksAn Evening of Long Goodbyes (203), Skippy Dies (2010), The Bee Sting (2023)
Notable awardsIrish Book Award; Nero Book Award

Paul Murray (born 1975) is an Irish novelist, the author of the novels An Evening of Long Goodbyes (2003), Skippy Dies (2010), The Mark and the Void (2015), and The Bee Sting (2023). The Bee Sting was shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize and won an Irish Book Award as Novel of the Year, as well as 2023's inaugural Nero Book Award,

Biography

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Murray was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1975, the son of a professor of Anglo-Irish Drama at University College Dublin and a teacher.[1] Murray attended Blackrock College in south Dublin, an experience that would later provide the basis for the school in Skippy Dies. He studied English literature at Trinity College, Dublin, and subsequently completed his master's in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. He also spent time in Barcelona, Spain, as an English teacher, a time he did not enjoy, describing it as "a brief and unhappy stint teaching English to a Catalan businessman, who pointed out many faults in my grammar I had not known about hitherto".[2] He describes Gravity's Rainbow as "really inspiring for me when I was younger because it was a bridge between the world of literature and the world of pop culture."[3]

Novels

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Murray has written four novels: his first, An Evening of Long Goodbyes, was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Prize in 2003[4] and nominated for the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. His second novel, Skippy Dies, was longlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize[5][6] and shortlisted for the 2010 Costa Prize, the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. It was also number three on Time magazine's top-ten works of fiction from 2010. His third novel, The Mark and the Void, was one of Time's top-ten best fiction books for 2015, and joint winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize in 2016.

His most recent novel, The Bee Sting, was published in 2023. Described as "a tragicomic triumph"[7] and a source of "pure page-turning pleasure"[8] in The Guardian, it was shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize,[9][5] won an Irish Book Award as 2023 Novel of the Year,[10] and won the inaugural £30,000 Nero Gold prize for the 2023 Book of the Year.[11] The Bee Sting was included on the New York Times list (along with four others works) of “The Best Fiction Books of 2023”.[12]

Metal Heart

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Murray wrote the screenplay for 2018 Irish film Metal Heart, which was directed by Hugh O'Conor.[13][14]

List of works

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Personal life

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Murray lives in Dublin with his wife and son.[15]

References

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  1. ^ Fox, Genevieve (2 June 2011). "Paul Murray: Week One: Interview". The Telegraph.
  2. ^ "Sunday Salon: An Interview with Paul Murray, author of Skippy Dies". keeperofthesnails.blogspot.com. 27 June 2010.[self-published source]
  3. ^ Popkey, Miranda (21 October 2010). "Paul Murray and 'Skippy Dies'". The Paris Review.
  4. ^ "Whitbread Prize 2003". theguardian.com.
  5. ^ a b "Jonathan Escoffery, Chetna Maroo and Paul Murray among 2023 Booker Prize Shortlist". Aussie Osbourne. September 2023. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  6. ^ "Longlist announced for Man Booker Prize 2010: Man Booker Prize news". Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
  7. ^ Jordan, Justine (31 May 2023). "The Bee Sting by Paul Murray review – a tragicomic triumph". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
  8. ^ Jordan, Justine (1 August 2023). "Irish writers, debuts – and groundbreaking sci-fi: the Booker longlist in depth". The Guardian.
  9. ^ Anderson, Porter (21 September 2023). "In England: The Booker Prize for Fiction Names Its 2023 Shortlist". Publishing Perspectives. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  10. ^ Falvey, Deirdre (22 November 2023). "Paul Murray wins Novel of the Year for The Bee Sting at the An Post Irish Book Awards". irishtimes.com. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  11. ^ Creamer, Ella (14 March 2024). "Paul Murray's The Bee Sting wins inaugural Nero book of the year prize". The Guardian.
  12. ^ "The Book Review's Best Books Since 2000". The New York Times. 29 April 2024.
  13. ^ Clarke, Donald (26 June 2019). "Metal Heart: Hugh O'Conor's charming comedy set in middle-class suburban Dublin". The Irish Times.
  14. ^ Shortall, Eithne (16 June 2019). "Metal Heart star Jordanne Jones on the role she was born to play". The Times.
  15. ^ Fox, Killian (27 May 2023). "Paul Murray: 'I just dumped all my sadness into the book'". The Guardian.
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