Novelist Colm Tóibín has become the first Irish author to win the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, for The Master, an absorbing portrayal of Henry James.

The award, which is worth €100,000, is the world’s richest literary prize for a single work of fiction published in English.

Shortlisted for the 2004 Booker prize, Colm’s book was selected from 132 novels from 43 countries.

The Master recently won the Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger for the best foreign novel published in 2005 in France.

Many congratulations from Slimming for the Beach! He’s worked damn hard at his craft for more than twenty years, and richly deserves his world-wide success.

Colm Tóibín’s website

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RTE News - Tóibín is first Irish author to win IMPAC