Born in Co. Sligo, Ireland, he worked as a comics editor at Fleetway and later at Deadline magazine . He worked for a time at AOL before becoming a literary translator. He has translated many authors including Michel Houellebecq, Boualem Sansal, Frédéric Beigbeder and the late Ivoirian novelist Ahmadou Kourouma. He jointly won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award with Houellebecq for Atomised, his translation of Les Particules élémentaires. His translation of Frédéric Beigbeder's Windows on the World, a novel set in the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York during the September 11, 2001 attacks, won the 2005 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. He has also won the 2008 Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize for translation from the French and the 2012 Premio Valle Inclán for Spanish Translation.
His book, I Was Vermeer, a biography of Han van Meegeren was published by Bloomsbury in August 2006 and serialised as the BBC Radio 4 "Book of the Week" (read by Anton Lesser) in August 2006.
Selected translations
Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
Platform by Michel Houellebecq (adapted by Carnal Acts for the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA))
Lanzarote by Michel Houellebecq
The Patagonian Hare : A Memoir by Claude Lanzmann (shortlisted for the 2013 French-American Florence Gould Translation Prize)
An Unfinished Business (published in the US as The German Mudjahid) by Boualem Sansal
The Frozen Heart by Almudena Grandes
The Blue Hour by Alonso Cueto (shortlisted for the 2013 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize)
What the Day Owes the Night by Yasmina Khadra
Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras
Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
Windows on the World by Frédéric Beigbeder
Mammals by Pierre Mérot
Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote by Ahmadou Kourouma
Allah is Not Obliged by Ahmadou Kourouma
The Little Book of Philosophy by André Comte-Sponville
Working Knowledge by Petr Král
Forever Nude by Guy Goffette
Banquet of Lies by Amin Zaoui
Somewhere in a Desert by Dominique Sigaud (a New York Times notable book)
In the Beginning Was the Sea by Tomás González
Liveforever by Andrés Caicedo
Awards
2016: Winner of the Scott Moncrieff Prize for the translation of Harraga' by Boualem Sansal
2015: Winner of the CWA International Dagger for the translation of Camille by Pierre Lemaitre
2014: Winner of the CWA International Dagger for the translation of The Siege by Arturo Perez-Reverte
2014: Winner of the Premio Valle-Inclán for the translation of The Blue Hour by Alonso Cueto
2013: Joint Winner of the CWA International Dagger for the translation of Alex by Pierre Lemaitre
2012: Winner of the Premio Valle-Inclán for the translation of Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras
2008: Winner of the Scott Moncrieff Prize for the translation of Holiday in a Coma and Love Lasts Three Years by Frédéric Beigbeder
2005: Winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for Windows on the World by Frédéric Beigbeger
2002: Winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for Atomised' by Michel Houellebecq
