The Sea, says Banville, “is not the normal kind of Booker book”, and he hopes its success will send a long-overdue message to publishers that “literary fiction can make money. That’s very important in this image-obsessed age.”
A very much long-overdue message. Thank you, Mr Banville, for saying this. If I may be so bold, as one Picador author to another, I delight in your finest hour, and salute you.
And as someone who has slaved over three novels, anyone who can write and publish fourteen novels, not to mention novels of Banville’s calibre, is a hero in my book.
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