Irish author John Banville's novel
The Sea, which follows a man who returns to an Irish seaside town to confront traumatic memories, beat favorites to win
Britain's top literary honor, the
Man Booker Prize, on Monday.
Banville's offering trumped bookies' favorites - penned by Julian Barnes, former winner Kazuo Ishiguro and Zadie Smith - to take the 50,000-pound (US$88,000) prize at an awards ceremony in London.
Banville, who was considered an outsider to claim the prestigious award, triumphed after a debate between judges who had been torn between his work and Ishiguro's novel
Never Let Me Go.
Banville previously made the Booker shortlist in 1989 with his novel
Book of Evidence. On that occasion he lost out to Ishiguro's
The Remains of The Day.
