Berger, John

(British, 1926– )

Berger was born in London, where he was educated at the Central School of Art and Chelsea School of Art. Begin with Corker's Freedom (1964), describing a day in the life of an ageing man who attempts to escape from his stultifying suburban existence. Berger won the Booker Prize for G (1972), which traces the career of a doomed sensualist through its experimental blend of historical fact and poetic fiction. While the hero obsessively seeks fulfilment in sexual passion, Europe totters towards the First World War. Into Their Labours, a trilogy consisting of Pig Earth (1979), Once in Europe (1987), and Lilac and Flag (1990), forms his most celebrated work. The elegiac narrative is constructed from interlinking stories which use techniques of vivid montage and magic realism to evoke the destructive impact of modernity on a French peasant community.

Gabriel García Márquez, Émile Zola  DH