Despite having been shortlisted for what was then the prestigious Orange Prize for women’s fiction in 2002 for her debut, No Bones, Anna Burns is a relatively unknown Irish writer. Sales of last year’s winner, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, increased by 1,227 per cent after it won. While Milkman depicts a community brutalised by British state violence, its portrayal of paramilitary domination does not flatter republicanism. It is a profoundly troubling novel which considers mental health during the Troubles with an unflinching, ambitious narrative voice. In its digressive, batty narrative voice, it resembles a novel cited by the narrator: Tristram Shandy.

Source: The Irish Times October 16, 2018 20:48 UTC