British novelist, Barry Unsworth, who wrote historical fiction and won a Booker prize for his story about the 18th Century slave trade, Sacred Hunger, passed away in Italy. The novelist was 81 years old and lived in Umbria for many years.
The publisher of the writer, Hutchinson, confirmed the news of the death on June 8, 2012. Jocasta Hamilton, the publishing director said that Barry was a wonderful writer and this is a great loss. Hamilton added that Barr’s work has been characterized by a willingness to tackle big subjects with great humanity.
Barry was born in 1930 and his writing was known to bring enormous pleasure as well as being though provoking and illuminating. The author was born in a small mining community in Durham and has traveled extensively in Greece and Turkey during the 1960s while teaching the universities of Athens and Istanbul.
The author even shared the Booker price that he received in the year 1992 with Michael Ondaatje for his tenth novel Sacred Hunger. Novelist Ursula Le Guin, whi,e talking about Barry’s work said that his 2009 novel Land of Marvels, which was set in the Spring of 1914 in Mesopotamia was like watching an Olympic athlete about to win the gold.
