Barry Unsworth

Barry Unsworth won the Booker Prize for Sacred Hunger; his next novel, Morality Play, was a Booker nominee and a bestseller in both the United States and Great Britain. His other novels include The Ruby in Her Navel, The Songs of the Kings, Losing Nelson, After Hannibal, The Hide, and Pascali's Island, which was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was made into a feature film.

From his Q & A with David Evans in the Financial Times:

What book changed your life?

Tales from Olympus, an illustrated book of Greek myths, which I was given as a birthday present at the age of about ten. It opened up new horizons for me.

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Which literary character most resembles you?

Pierre in War and Peace, a man who is always questioning the world and everything in it.

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Who are your literary influences?

Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness was a book that made me want to join the company of writers, without necessarily wanting to emulate it.

Read the complete Q & A.

--Marshal Zeringue