Now it's a sell-out for Booker winner
Irish bookstores are struggling to keep up with demand for Anne Enright's booker prize-winning novel, with many stores sold out of copies.
The book is certain to top bestseller lists this week as Eason's reported sales of 12,000 copies from its store, with the vast majority sold since the prize was announced.
This is in contrast to sales of just 7,340 copies here before the Irish author's win.
Dubray books reported sales of hundreds a day since the prize was announced, while Waterstone's Jervis Street branch said the book was selling "ridiculously well".
"We expect this will be the top-selling book right up to Christmas," Waterstones manager Jerry Butler said.
Going on previous winners Miss Enright (45) can look forward to an expected 15-fold increase in sales following her win.
Last year's winner, Kiran Desai, went from sales figures of just 2,396 to selling over 500 copies a week when she won, while 2002's winner, Life of Pi, sold more than a million copies after it won the prize.
Some 50,000 copies of Miss Enright's book have been ordered with a further 50,000 of her back catalogue also on order.
Sales figures in the UK are estimated to be around 35,000 but her publishers expect that that figure will increase to at least 140,000 copies.
Born in Dublin 1962, Miss Enright worked as a television journalist for RTE before becoming a full-time writer.
The pressures of her occupation lead to depression and drinking problems which culminated in her been hospitalised for several weeks following a nervous breakdown.
The author recently admitted she regularly battled with thoughts of suicide in her twenties, telling an interviewer: "One doctor asked how many times I had thought of killing myself.
"I told him, ' about 243 times before lunch'."
Miss Enright is the third Irish novelist to claim the Booker Prize following Roddy Doyle's 1993 win for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, and John Banville's win, in 2005, for The Sea. Since Miss Enright's win, however, she has faced controversy over a critical essay she wrote, two weeks ago, about the parents of missing toddler Madeline McCann.
- Conor Gallagher
