A fictional book about John Lennon has won the Goldsmiths Prize, celebrating the novel at its most innovative. Kevin Barry's Beatlebone is described as a novel "that takes its reader to the edge - of the Western world, of sanity, of fame, of words".
"Intricately weaving and blurring fiction and life, Beatlebone embodies beautifully this prize's spirit of creative risk," said judge Josh Cohen. Barry, who beat five other contenders, was awarded a £10,000 prize.
His novel is set in Dorinish, an uninhabited island off the Irish coast, which Lennon bought in 1967 for £1,700. Set in 1978, it follows the former Beatle as he visits the island to attend a course of primal scream therapy. The author described it as "a play for voices".
"I had no idea what I was working on for a long time with the novel Beatlebone," Barry said, ahead of the award ceremony on Wednesday.
"I thought it might be a radio documentary, I thought it might be an essay, I thought it might be a play... it's ended up as being kind of all of these things."