Novelist and journalist, also known as Benjamin Black – pen name under which he wrote five novels. His novel The Book of Evidence was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1989, while The Sea earned him the Man Booker Prize in 2005. He was awarder with the Franz Kafka Prize in 2011. In Ireland he worked as a staff editor for several national publications and was elected in 1984 for the Aosdána artist association, from which he relinquished in 2001 to leave is place and stipend to a more impoverished writer. In 2007 he was appointed Cavaliere della Stella d’Italia. He wrote for the theatre and for the screen. His latest novel April in Spain (2021).