Banville was born in Wexford in southeast Ireland, and was educated at Catholic schools. Interestingly, in light of his considerable erudition, he never went to university (a decision he regrets); instead, he got a job with Aerlingus so he could travel. He has lived in for many years in Dublin with his wife and sons, and has served as literary editor of the Irish Times. His fiction is famous for its mordant wit, cold-hearted characters, and irradiated language. After several early novels, he wrote a trilogy of novels about great men of science (DOCTOR COPERNICUS, KEPLER, THE NEWTON LETTER); these novels surpassed the historical context, and became literary investigations of knowledge and meaning. He followed this up with another trilogy that featured one of the literature's most unreliable and sympathetic villains in the form of Freddie Montgomery, an intelligent, vainglorious, and obsessive young narrator. In THE BOOK OF EVIDENCE Montgomery writes from a prison cell after a motiveless murder of a maid. The book was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 1989; he would eventually win the prize in 2005 for his novel THE SEA. Known for his arrogance, Banville said in his acceptance speech that "It is nice to see a work of art win the Booker prize." He followed up his literary triumph with a quickly written crime fiction novel CHRISTINE FALLS, published under the pseudonym of Benjamin Black.