Barry Unsworth

Barry Unsworth (1930–2012) was an English novelist known for historical fiction. His novel Sacred Hunger shared the 1992 Booker Prize with Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient.

Connect

Sacred Hunger: Barry Unsworth’s 1992 novel about the slave trade, which shared the Booker Prize. Its Atlantic slave-trade setting and moral inquiry exemplify his historical fiction.
Wingate Grammar School: A former grammar school in County Durham, England, attended by Barry Unsworth. Unsworth’s education there preceded his work as a novelist.
Atlantic slave trade: The forced transportation of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It is the historical system at the center of Sacred Hunger.
1992 Booker Prize: The Booker Prize jointly awarded to Barry Unsworth’s Sacred Hunger and Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient. The shared award made Unsworth a Booker laureate.
The English Patient: Michael Ondaatje’s 1992 novel about four people in an Italian villa during World War II. It shared the Booker Prize with Sacred Hunger.
University of Manchester: A public research university in Manchester, England. Unsworth studied English at the university before beginning his literary career.
Abolitionism: The movement to end slavery and the slave trade. Abolitionist arguments shape the moral conflicts in Sacred Hunger and The Quality of Mercy.
Booker Prize for Fiction: The annual literary award now known as the Booker Prize, established in 1969. Unsworth’s win placed his work among the award’s recognized novels.
Morality Play: Barry Unsworth’s novel about traveling actors performing a murder mystery in medieval England. Its medieval setting and inquiry into truth are central to Unsworth’s fiction.
Istanbul: Turkey’s largest city, historically known as Constantinople and Byzantium. Unsworth taught in Istanbul, an experience that informed his interest in Ottoman history.