Post-9/11 Novel ‘Netherland’ Wins PEN/Faulkner Award
By Dave Itzkoff writing in The New York Times

Author pic right by Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

Joseph O’Neill,’s novel “Netherland” was named the winner of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation said on Wednesday.

The honor for “Netherland,” about a Dutch-born equities analyst, his British wife and their son, who live in New York during the Sept. 11 attack and its aftermath, is something of a comeback for Mr. O’Neill.

The novel, though widely praised, was shut out in the National Book Awards and the National Book Critics Circle awards. The PEN/Faulkner Award, which comes with a prize of $15,000, will be given to Mr. O’Neill at a ceremony on May 9. Four finalists, who will receive $5,000 each, were also named. They are Sarah Shun-lien Bynum for “Ms. Hempel Chronicles,” Susan Choi for “A Person of Interest,” Richard Price for “Lush Life” and Ron Rash for “Serena.”

Footnote:

Reviewed by Gordon McLauchlan last November. Link here.

Published by Fourth Estate in UK/NZ-Aust.