Pierre, D(irty) B(ut) C(lean)

(British, 1964– )

Pierre was born in Australia, brought up in Mexico, lived in London and the West Indies, and is currently in Ireland. His first novel, Vernon God Little (2003) burst onto the literary scene and scooped a range of prizes including that year's Booker. It is a breathtakingly fast-moving comic novel set in small town Texas and seaside Mexico, narrated by 15-year-old Vernon Gregory Little. Vernon's voice is slangy, irreverent, street-wise, poetic, extremely funny, and simultaneously movingly innocent, in its revelation of the hypocritical and at times contemptible values of the society he lives in: a cross between Huck Finn and Bart Simpson. This is a great piece of satire, with an unforgettable central character.

J. D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Twain  JR