Milkman
Anna Burns
2018 • Faber & Faber
I’d like the reader to feel I’ve conveyed something about closed societies, and how they work, and the conditions, the very restrictive conditions that go on within them. And how the inhabitants of that society adapt to these conditions as if they’re normal, whereas the outside world would probably see them as very bizarre.
— Anna Burns
Milkman
Anna Burns
2018 • Faber & Faber
I’d like the reader to feel I’ve conveyed something about closed societies, and how they work, and the conditions, the very restrictive conditions that go on within them. And how the inhabitants of that society adapt to these conditions as if they’re normal, whereas the outside world would probably see them as very bizarre.
— Anna Burns
Description
In an unnamed city, where to be interesting is dangerous, an eighteen-year-old woman has attracted the unwanted and unavoidable attention of a powerful and frightening older man, ‘Milkman’. In this community, where suggestions quickly become fact, where gossip and hearsay can lead to terrible consequences, what can she do to stop a rumour once it has started? Milkman is persistent, the word is spreading, and she is no longer in control . . .
Excerpts
Interviews
- The Booker Prizes: Anna Burns Interview
- The Irish Times: Anna Burns – ‘I had to get Myself Some Distance Away from the Troubles’
- Financial Times: 'Man Booker Winner Anna Burns on Lessons From the "Powder Keg"'
- The Belfast Telegraph: 'Man Booker Winner Anna Burns on her Own Extraordinary Story From Mitching School, the Troubles and Giving Up Alcohol'
- New Statesman: ‘I’ve Been Homeless Myself - you Start Thinking, "I’m Not Entitled." Novelist Anna Burns on Winning the Booker Prize
- Independent: 'The New Booker Prize Winner Who May Never Write Again'
- Irish Times: 'Anna Burns Brings Intimacy, Insight and Laughter Back From the Beyond to Belfast'
- Guardian interview: 'Anna Burns on her life-changing Booker win'
Prizes & Awards
- Winner of the International Dublin Literary Award, 2020
- Winner of Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, 2019
- Winner of the Man Booker Prize, 2018
- Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award (Fiction), 2018
- Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, 2019
- Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, 2019
Reviews
- Claire Kilroy, The Guardian
- Ron Charles, The Washington Post
- Maddie Crum, Vulture.com
- Laura Miller, The New Yorker
- Cal Revely-Calder, Daily Telegraph
- A.N. Devers, The LA Times
- Annalisa Quinn, NPR
- Marisol Morales-Ladrón, The Irish Times
- Clair Wills, The New York Review of Books
Audio
- International Literature Festival Dublin: Anna Burns - 2020 International Dublin Literary Award Shortlist
- South Bank Centre’s Book Podcast: Anna Burns - Milkman
- FaberandFaber: Audio Excerpt from Milkman
Video
- DublinCityLiterature: 2020 International Dublin Literary Award Winner Announcement
- DublinCityLiterature: Anna Burns Acceptance Speech
- DublinCityLiterature: 2020 Shortlist - Milkman by Anna Burns (Extract)
- The Hindu: Man Booker Prize 2018 - Anna Burns Speaks after Winning Prize
- TheBookerPrizes: Man Booker 2018 Author Shortlist Video - Anna Burns
- Rathbones Folio Prize: Anna Burns – Milkman
- Arts Council of Northern Ireland: Anna Burns in Conversation with Anne Enright – Audience Reaction
