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The
Master was chosen from a shortlist of 10, and
a longlist of 132 books.
180
libraries participated - representing 124 cities in
43 countries The
Judges
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Published
by Picador
and Scribner The
Master was nominated by 17 libraries: -
Dublin
City Public Libraries, Ireland -
Cork
City Libraries. Ireland -
Limerick
City Library, Ireland -
Edinburgh
City Libraries & Information Services, Scotland -
Tweebronnen
Openbare Bibliotheek, Leuven, Belgium -
State
Library of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia -
State
Library of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia -
Dunedin
Public Libraries, New Zealand -
Cape
Town Central Library, South Africa -
Biblioteca
Luis Angel Arango, Bogota, Colombia -
Lincoln
Library, Springfield, USA -
Free
Library of Philadelphia, USA -
Hartford
Public Library, USA -
Kansas
City Public Library, USA -
Minneapolis
Public Library, USA -
San
José Public Library, USA -
Public
Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County, USA
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In
their comments on the novel the judges said “In
The Master, Colm Tóibín captures the exquisite anguish of
a man who circulated in the grand parlours and palazzos of Europe, who was astonishingly
alive and vibrant in his art, and yet whose attempts at intimacy inevitably failed
him and those he tried to love. It is a powerful account of the hazards of putting
the life of the mind before affairs of the heart.
“This probing portrayal
of Henry James is not merely an outstanding narrative. In crisp, modulated writing,
it subtly balances a range of devices that leave the reader in no doubt about
the accomplishment of this work. For its deftly excavated psychology of the Jamesian
childhood and youth, for its quiet revelations of the artist's journey and the
emotional and material necessities accompanying this, for the melancholic undertone
which surfaces through the probing landscape of this writer's life, The Master
is, and will continue to be, a work of novelistic art: its preoccupations are
truth and the elusiveness of intimacy, and from such preoccupations emerge this
patient, beautiful, exposure of loss, and the price of the pursuit of perfection.”
The
winner was presented with a specially commissioned piece of Waterford Crystal
and the prize money at a presentation dinner in City Hall, Dublin on Tuesday,
June 13th 2006. |
