John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. His first book, Long Lankin , was published in 1970. His other books include Nightspawn , Birchwood , Doctor Copernicus (which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1976), Kepler (which was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1981), The Newton Letter , Mefisto , The Book of Evidence , Athena , The Untouchable , Eclipse , Shroud and The Sea. He has received a literary award from the Lannan Foundation. He lives in Dublin.