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Barry Unsworth biography

Author Biography  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Barry Unsworth
Photo: Aira Unsworth

Barry Unsworth

How to pronounce Barry Unsworth: UNS-worth

Barry Unsworth Biography

Barry Unsworth (b. 1930) won the Booker Prize for Sacred Hunger (1992); his next novel, Morality Play, was a Booker nominee and a bestseller in both the United States and Great Britain. His other novels include The Ruby in Her Navel, The Songs of the Kings, Losing Nelson, After Hannibal, The Hide, and Pascali's Island, which was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was made into a feature film.

He was born in Wingate, a mining village in Durham, England. After graduating from the University of Manchester in 1951, he lived in France for a year teaching English. In the 1960s he traveled extensively in Greece and Turkey, lecturing at the University of Athens and the University of Istanbul. In 1999 he was a visiting professor at the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop. In 2004 he taught literature and creative writing classes at Kenyon College in Ohio. He died on June 5, 2012 at the age of 81 from lung cancer.


Bibliography

Selected Novels
The Partnership (1966)
The Hide (1970)
Mooncranker's Gift (1973)
The Big Day (1976)
Pascali's Island (1980)
The Idol Hunter (1980)
The Rage of the Vulture (1982)
Stone Virgin (1985)
Sugar and Rum (1988)
Sacred Hunger (1991)
The Greeks Have a Word for It (1993)
Morality Play (1995)
After Hannibal (1996)
Losing Nelson (1999)
The Songs of the Kings (2002)
The Ruby in Her Navel (2006)
Land of Marvels (2009)
The Quality of Mercy (2011)


Anthology (editor)

Classic Sea Stories (1994)


Nonfiction
Novels and Novelists in the 1990's (1993)
Nelson Biography (1999)
Crete (2004)



This bio was last updated on 06/10/2012. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

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Books by this Author

Books by Barry Unsworth at BookBrowse
The Quality of Mercy jacket Land of Marvels jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Barry Unsworth but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Caroline Alexander

    Caroline Alexander

    Caroline Alexander was born in Florida, of British parents and has lived in Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. She studied philosophy and theology at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and has a doctorate in classics from Columbia ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Quality of Mercy

    Try:
    The Bounty
    by Caroline Alexander

  • Louis de Bernieres

    Louis de Bernieres

    Louis de Bernières works include A Partisan's Daughter, Birds Without Wings, Red Dog, Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World, Corelli's Mandolin (Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Best Book, 1995), The ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Land of Marvels

    Try:
    Birds Without Wings
    by Louis de Bernieres

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