McBride wins Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize
Eimear McBride has claimed another award for her debut novel A Girl is a Half-formed Thing (Galley Beggar Press), winning the 2013 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize.
The book, written in a stream-of-consciousness style, is narrated by a young woman growing up in Ireland under the dark influence of her brother's childhood brain tumour.
McBride now adds another £1,500 to her prize total with the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, which is awarded in alternate years to works of prose and poetry. Last year's winner was poet Jacob Polley, and the award has previously been given to writers including Will Self, Julian Barnes, Seamus Heaney and David Mitchell.
The judges for this year's award were Deidre Madden, Patrick Neale and Gaby Wood. Madden said: "A Girl is a Half-formed Thing is literature of the highest order and a true work of art. It displays a remarkable understanding of language and form and is technically brilliant. An important novel, which breaks new ground."
It has already won the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year award and the Desmond Elliott Prize. The book was first published by Galley Beggar Press in June 2013 after McBride had spent 10 years trying to get it published. A paperback edition was published in April this year by Faber in partnership with Galley Beggar Press.