Other aspects of what Burns calls the work’s “experimental” style include a lack of names and a highly voice-driven narrative. In Milkman, however, Burns refers to these events only indirectly, calling those associated with the local paramilitary forces (probably the IRA) “renouncers,” and speaking of England and loyalist strongholds as “over the water” and “over the road,” respectively. Like Burns herself, the novel’s protagonist grows up in 1970s Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles: a 30-year political, ethnic, and religious conflict between nationalists (primarily Catholic and of Irish descent) seeking to split from the United Kingdom, and loyalists (primarily Protestant descendants of British settlers) seeking to remain. Burns was the first Northern Irish writer ever to receive the award, and Milkman’s subject matter is inseparable from its author’s nationality. Milkman is author Anna Burns’ third novel, as well as the winner of the 2018 Man Booker Prize in Fiction (widely regarded as one of the most prestigious awards in literature).
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