British · b. 1966
Nicola Barker writes novels that are impossible to summarize. "Darkmans" (2007) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize—a 900-page comic epic about a medieval jester's revenge on modern Ashford. "Wide Open" (1998) won the IMPAC Dublin Award. Barker's fiction is dense, funny, and relentlessly strange. She lives in London and writes about England's overlooked edges with manic energy.