Having moved to
Nottingham (where he now lives), he wrote his first novel,
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, while living on a
narrowboat. It was nominated for the 2002
Booker Prize, making its author the youngest contender and only first novelist on the longlist. McGregor was only 26 at the time. The International Dublin Literary Award was a competition among 147 writers nominated by international public libraries, including
Pulitzer Prize winner
Jennifer Egan. McGregor received a prize of €100,000. The prize's judging panel, which included the British novelist
Tim Parks and the
Trinidadian writer
Elizabeth Nunez, described
Even the Dogs, a novel detailing the highs and lows of drug addiction, as a "fearless experiment". McGregor described it as "a real honour to have been selected from such a huge list of fantastic works from around the world." He was the first British writer to win the award since
Nicola Barker in 2000. ==Works==