John Banville was born in Wexford Ireland in 1945. He is the author of fifteen previous
novels including The Sea which won the 2005 Man Booker Prize. In 2011 he was awarded the Franz
Kafka Prize in 2013 he was awarded the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Irish
Literature and in 2014 he won the Prince of Asturias Award Spain's most important literary
prize. He lives in Dublin.
