Kevin Barry Wins Impac Dublin Literary Award

The Irish writer Kevin Barry has won the International Impac Dublin Literary Award for his novel “City of Bohane.”

The lucrative award, issued since 1996, came this year with a prize of €100,000 (about $130,000).

Books are nominated for the award by public libraries worldwide, and this year’s initial list of nominees featured more than 150 books. The short list of 10 finalists included “1Q84″ by Haruki Murakami, “Swamplandia!” by Karen Russell and “The Map and the Territory” by Michel Houellebecq.

“City of Bohane,” Mr. Barry’s first novel, is set in a futuristic Ireland ruled by gang violence. In The Times Book Review, Pete Hamill called the book “extraordinary,” and said it was, “full of marvels. They are all literary marvels, of course: marvels of language, invention, surprise. Savage brutality is here, but so is laughter. And humanity. And the abiding ache of tragedy.”