John Banville (Irish writer) Add a review

William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, adapter of dramas, and screenwriter. He also had a 30-year career working in the Irish newspaper industry and served as literary editor of The Irish Times from 1988 until 1999.

Born and raised in Wexford town in the southeast of Ireland, he published his first book, a collection of short stories titled Long Lankin, in 1970. His first novel, Nightspawn, appeared in 1971, followed by his second, Birchwood, two years later. His "Revolutions Trilogy", published between 1976 and 1982, comprises works named after renowned scientists: Doctor Copernicus, Kepler and The Newton Letter. His next work, Mefisto, had a mathematical theme, and, in combination with the three books from the "Revolutions Trilogy," is the fourth book from the "Scientific Tetralogy." His 1989 novel The Book of Evidence began the "Frames Trilogy," dealing with the work of art; it was completed by Ghosts and Athena. His thirteenth novel, The Sea, won the Booker Prize in 2005. In addition, he publishes crime novels as Benjamin Black, most of which feature the character of Quirke, an Irish pathologist based in 1950s Dublin. His alternative history novel The Secret Guests (2020) was published under the name B. W. Black.

Banville has won the 1976 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the 2003 International Nonino Prize, the 2005 Booker Prize, the 2011 Franz Kafka Prize, the 2013 Austrian State Prize for European Literature and the 2014 Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2007. Italy made him a Cavaliere of the Ordine della Stella d'Italia (a knighthood) in 2017. He is a former member of Aosdána, having voluntarily relinquished the financial stipend in 2001 to another, more impoverished, writer. He is considered a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He lives in Howth, Dublin.