Το Booker στην Ιρλανδή Anne Enright

Στην Ανν Ενράιτ [Anne Enright] απονεμήθηκε το βραβείο Booker κι όπως μάθαμε έφερε μεγάλη χαρά στις Εκδόσεις Καστανιώτη, που κατά τη διάρκεια της Διεθνούς Έκθεσης Βιβλίου στη Φρανκφούρτη, κατέληξαν σε συμφωνία για τα δικαιώματα του βιβλίου της -από τα αουτσάιντερ της λίστας του βραβείου Booker- η οποία από χθες το βράδυ (16 Οκτωβρίου 2007) κρατάει στα χέρια της το βραβείο και την επιταγή των 50 χιλιάδων λιρών. Το βιβλίο της The Gathering (πρωτότυπος τίτλος) πρόκειται να κυκλοφορήσει από τις Εκδόσεις Καστανιώτη τον Δεκέμβριο του 2007 σε μετάφραση Αύγουστου Κορτώ και με τον τίτλο Η συγκέντρωση.

Η Ανν Ενράιτ, 45 ετών, είναι η δεύτερη Ιρλανδή γυναίκα που κερδίζει το βραβείο, μετά την Άιρις Μέρντοχ (1978). Το Booker έχουν επίσης κερδίσει οι Ιρλανδοί Ρόντυ Ντόιλ (1993) και Τζον Μπάνβιλ (2005) με το μυθιστόρημά του Η Θάλασσα, που κυκλοφορεί επίσης από τις Εκδόσεις Καστανιώτη.

Στην ανακοίνωση που έκανε ο πρόεδρος της επιτροπής, Xάουαρντ Ντέιβις, είπε μεταξύ άλλων: «Το βιβλίο ρίχνει μια αυστηρή ματιά στην ιστορία μιας ταλαιπωρημένης οικογένειας. Ένα δυνατό, αλλά ταυτόχρονα σκοτεινό και πολλές φορές οργισμένο βιβλίο».

Όταν ανακοινώθηκε από την επιτροπή το όνομα της Ανν Ενράιτ η πρώτη αντίδραση της συγγραφέως ήταν η έκπληξη και, όπως είπε η ίδια, παρόλο που βρισκόταν στη μικρή λίστα, η πιθανή βράβευσή της παρέμενε στη σφαίρα της φαντασίας.

Η Ανν Ενράιτ διηγείται την ιστορία της εννιαμελούς οικογένειας Χέγκαρτι, που μαζεύονται στο Δουβλίνο για την κηδεία του αδελφού τους Λίαμ, για να ξαναζήσουν ένα σκοτεινό μυστικό της παιδικής τους ηλικίας.

ΜΙΚΡΟ ΒΙΟΓΡΑΦΙΚΟ

Anne Enright was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. After studying creative writing under Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter at the University of East Anglia, she worked for six years as a TV producer and director in Ireland. She is married to the actor Martin Murphy. She has published one collection of stories, The Portable Virgin, which won the Rooney Prize, and three previous novels, The Wig My Father Wore, What Are You Like? and The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch. What Are You Like? was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award and won the Encore Award. Her first work of non-fiction, Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood, was published in 2004.

‘I bring all of myself to a book’

Η Anne Enright συνεχίζει την Ιρλανδέζικη λογοτεχνική παράδοση

Congratulations on being shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2007. What was your initial reaction to being shortlisted and how has life treated you since the announcement?

I was strangely relieved to hear the news of the longlist, but it still has an element of fantasy about it. The prize thing is a little hard to grasp for the writer involved, but it does make a difference to people around them - my mother, for example, is delighted. But, you know, I am a working writer - in the weeks since the shortlist I have written two stories, copy edited a book of short stories, and done readings and interviews in the U.S. When I’m away I party, when I’m home I hang out with the kids. Occasionally in the middle of all this, I remember about the Man Booker, and smile.

Your writing is heralded as sending ‘fresh blood through the Irish literary tradition’. How much pressure is there when your writing is compared to Ulysses?

I always work under great pressure, but it doesn’t come from what other people say as much as from my own demons, or angels: whatever force it is that makes me sit and type for book after book. I don’t do ‘straight’ novels - occasionally I feel the pressure to write something ‘nice’, or ‘easy’ but what the hell, I only do what I can. I am a passionate writer, I think - maybe there is no other kind - by which I mean I bring all of myself to a book, and am unstinting: I find it hard to compromise the voices in my head.

The Gathering ‘conjures up the mother and father of all Irish families’. Did you draw on personal experience to conjure up this family epic?

The book isn’t autobiographical, but after two years or more writing the damn thing it certainly felt as though it might be. It took me a while to disengage from Veronica Hegarty, who is the narrator of the book - I lived in her skin for so long. But, in case you’re wondering, no, I don’t come from a large family, I come from a normal-sized family and we get on quite well, I think.

Your writing is described as ‘dark’ and ‘bleak’, but then ‘humorous’ and ‘comical.’ Do you feel that tragedy is always teamed with absurdity?

Not always, but it helps.

Apparently some bookshops now have a shelf classification of ‘Tragic Family Books’. How do you feel about The Gathering being put in the same genre as the ‘misery memoir.’

Well.. it’s nothing to do with me really. I try not to get cross over things I can’t control.

You recently published your first work of non-fiction and next you are publishing a collection of short stories. Are there themes and styles that run through your novel, short story and non-fiction writing?

I think the way I make sentences is possibly distinctive, and that is true from book to book. People see connections and themes in my work that I am not always aware of, but I suppose I might admit to an interest, for the last few books, in blood, which is to say in family, biological connection; the way family begins in the body, as does love.

What would be your ‘Booker of Bookers’?

There have been many great winners but I am actually fondest of J.G. Farell who won in 1973 for The Siege of Krishnapur, and also wrote Troubles - one of my favourite books.

ΕΠΙΣΗΣ:

‘I need to write. I go a bit bonkers if I don’t’. The odds were against her – but rank outsider Anne Enright has won the Booker (The Sunday Times, 21/10/2007)

The Gathering by Anne Enright. Reviewed by Hugo Barnacle (The Sunday Times, 27/5/2007)

ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΣ ΤΥΠΟΣ

Δυσλειτουργική ιρλανδική οικογένεια έκλεψε το Μπούκερ - Ελευθεροτυπία, 18/10/07

Μπούκερ έκπληξη, στην Αν Ενράιτ. Η 45χρονη Ιρλανδή συγγραφέας τιμήθηκε με το σημαντικότερο λογοτεχνικό βραβείο της Βρετανίας - Η Καθημερινή, 18/10/07