Read about the other books on the list.The Sea
by John Banville
Upon The Sea's capture of the 2005 Man Booker Prize, author John Banville told reporters he had unabashedly set out to create a work of art: the results verify this to be no overstatement. A mercurial novel interweaving three timelines -- at times within the same sentence -- The Sea details the journeys of Max Morden, a middle-aged widower on vacation to the idyllic beaches of his youth. Within this aging paradise reside Max's memories of falling in love with both the mother and daughter of an affluent family adrift in the wake of its own brush with mortality. Intoxicating in its deft language, The Sea is a marvel uniting generations of Irish men and women under the spell of a literary marvel.
The Sea is on John Mullan's list of ten of the best swimming scenes in literature.
Also see Alan Barra's top twelve postwar Irish novels, Brian McGilloway's top ten modern Irish crime novels, Foyles's top 10 list of contemporary Irish novels, and Frank Delaney's top 10 Irish novels.
--Marshal Zeringue
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