I haven’t read the book and will put it at the top of my list once the Christmas purchase ban lifts, but the speech is great:
“If you use what is within you, what is within you will save you. If you do not use what is within you, what is within you will destroy you.’ My writing has saved me.”
If that wasn’t enough to get you keen on the book, this profile in The Guardian might be.
It has been a dramatic few years since he started writing the novel in 2018: his son had just been born; he had long Covid, which made writing an impossibility some days; he has had cancer and separated from his wife. And now he has landed the biggest prize in contemporary fiction.
I can’t wait to pick it up.