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. His new novel is The Quality of Mercy.

From his Q & A at the Independent:

Choose a favourite author and say why you admire him/her

Joseph Conrad, because of his wonderful capacity for visual effects. To make the reader see was his declared aim... I admire that a lot, and try to do it myself.
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Which fictional character most resembles you?

Pierre in [Tolstoy's] 'War and Peace'. I recognise that quality of well-intentioned clumsiness and ineptness – endearing in his case.
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Who is your hero/ heroine from outside literature?

The two Sicilian investigative magistrates, [Giovanni] Falcone and [Paolo] Borsellino, who were murdered by the Mafia in 1992. They showed extraordinary courage in pursuing their anti-Mafia investigations under constant threat of death....[read on]

Learn about the book that changed Unsworth's life.

--Marshal Zeringue