Sebastian Barry's "epic and intimate" journey through the 20th century, On Canaan's Side, has beaten portraits of 18th century Paris and Nazi-occupied Europe to be named the best historical novel of the year.
Barry's novel, in which 89-year-old Lilly narrates the story of her life, from her flight from post-first world war Dublin to the death of her grandson nearly seven decades later, won the £25,000 Walter Scott prize for historical fiction this weekend. Judges said there was "little more than a whisker" between On Canaan's Side and the five other shortlisted novels, which included Andrew Miller's Paris cemetery-set Pure and Esi Edugyan's Half-Blood Blues, but that its "drive and its sustained power" were eventually persuasive.
"A work of immense power, the book is muscular and complete, and the author wears his learning lightly. Every character is fully drawn and utterly memorable," said the panel, chaired by historian Alistair Moffat and including television journalist Kirsty Wark.
They praised On Canaan's Side for doing what Scott himself did: shifting perception on a period in history. The award is for the best piece of historical fiction of the past year and, taking its lead from Scott's own novel Waverley: Tis Sixty Years, must be set at least 60 years in the past.
Barry said he was "uncharacteristically speechless" to beat authors including Alan Hollinghurst and the late Barry Unsworth to win the prize. "I really was not expecting to win – just look at the other authors on the shortlist," he said. "My first encounter with Walter Scott was unlocking a trunk in my grandfather's attic which contained the Waverley novels. I felt as if I was excavating a tomb. I think that is an appropriate way to encounter a writer – as if you were literally retrieving him from the damp and history of your grandfather's life."
The Irish novelist has previously won the Costa book of the year for his novel The Secret Scripture, and has also been shortlisted twice for the Man Booker prize.