THE Australian author, David Malouf, was in Damascus, not Dublin, when he heard yesterday that he had become the first winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his novel, Remembering Babylon.
The news that he was the recipient of the £100,000 annual prize reached the writer via Australian embassy officials in the Syrian capital.
Malouf (62) is on a publicity tour of Syria and Jordan for an earlier novel which has just been translated into Arabic.
Speaking from the Australian ambassador's residence in the Jordanian capital Amman, last night, Malouf said he was "surprised and obviously delighted" to win the world's richest prize for a single literary work.
"It is a lot of money and of course it means a lot to people, but really what means most to you is finding yourself among other writers and being chosen out from a certain field.
"I know that literature in Ireland means something important and it's great that this prize is associated with Dublin", he added.
At a reception in Dublin Castle yesterday to announce the winner, the first secretary at the Australian embassy, Mr David Morris, was called on to pose for photographs on Malouf's behalf.
A five member international judging panel deliberated since last Friday before unanimously selecting Remembering Babylon.
The novel, which had been a favourite to win, was picked from a shortlist of seven titles for the award, which is sponsored by the US based productivity enhancement company, Improved Management Profitability and Control (IMPAC).
The shortlisted titles were whittled down from 125 novels submitted by 108 libraries in 51 countries.
The other six books were: Ghosts by John Banville; A Way in the World by V.S. Naipaul, The Gospel According to Jests Christ by Jose Saramago; The Following Story by Cees Nooteboom; The Laws by Connie Palmen and Away by Jane Urquhart.
Banville and Palmen were among the 200 people, including academics, writers and diplomats who attended the reception in St Patrick's Hall in the state apartments.
Announcing the winning book, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr Sean D. Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus, described the award as "a salute to Dublin's literary heritage which is unique in the world".
Remembering Babylon, which was shortlisted in 1993 for the Booker Prize and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, tells the story of castaway, Gemmy Fairley, who is raised by Aborigines.
One of the judges, the South African novelist, Mr Christopher Hope, said that after five days of deliberation and some disagreement, the decision to select Remembering Babylon was unanimous.
"We were saved from blood on the floor by the book itself," he said. "We were in the rare position of having a number of people from incredibly different countries finding themselves walking straight towards a book we could all agree on."
Prof Brendan Kennelly, who was also on the judging panel, praised the "elegance and conciseness, of the winning novel. "It's a marvellous story and he's very good at narrative and dialogue."
Malouf said he was looking forward to attending the presentation of the award at a formal dinner in Trinity College Dublin, on the eve of Bloomsday, June 15th.
Malouf said he hadn't yet thought about how he was going to spend the money. "I'm not a person who is likely to go out and buy a big car and in Australia literary prizes are treated as income: so a lot of it will go in tax to the government."