| A Beginner's Guide to the Man Booker Prize |
| by Elizabeth Woodrow The Man Booker prize has been described as one of the most important literary prizes in the English speaking world. It promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the best book of the year and encouraging a much wider reading of the very best in fiction across the UK. The prize, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year, aims to reward the author of the best novel with prize money of £50,000 plus the knock-on-effect of an immediate increase in sales and readership as well as an enduring place in the history of English literature. The finalists for this year’s prize were announced on the 9th September and the winner will be revealed on the 6th October. "We're thrilled to be able to announce such a strong shortlist,” Chairman James Naughtie exclaims, “so enticing that it will certainly give us a headache when we come to select the winner... There is thundering narrative, great inventiveness, poetry and sharp human insight in abundance.” Judges for the Booker prize are always selected from some of the greatest critics, writers and academics in the country and the trustworthy way in which the judging works is one of the reasons the prize stands out from other awards in its integrity. The panel of judges elected is changed from year to year and a judge is rarely enrolled for a second time. This year, judge and literary journalist Michael Prodger commented about the fact that the six shortlisted books were very similar in that they were all historically based. However, he states, “the degree of unanimity between the judges has taken me by surprise,” and “the fact that they are all historically based occurred to us only after they had been chosen. We were looking for the six best books not the best-balanced list.” This year the shortlist is as follows: A S Byatt ,The Children's Book, Random House, Chatto and Windus J M Coetzee, Summertime, Random House, Harvill Secker Adam Foulds, The Quickening Maze, Random House, Jonathan Cape Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, HarperCollins, Fourth Estate Simon Mawer, The Glass Room, Little, Brown Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger, Little, Brown, Virago 2008 saw the 40th anniversary of the Booker Man Prize, which Tom Maschler envisioned and realised at only 26 years old. “It made a mark right from the start,” Maschler states, “I shall never forget our pride and joy when the very first novel to win The Booker, P.H. Newby’s Something To Answer For, appeared on the Evening Standard bestseller list. It was the first time that a British novel had found its way onto a bestseller list purely as a result of wining a prize.” Maschler explains that his aims were to capture the imagination of both the press and the public in order to draw people into a serious interest in British fiction. Over the years contenders for the Man Booker prize have ranged from well established authors to first time novelists, for instance, Arundhati Roy, Yann Martel and DBC Pierre were all unknown authors until winning. Among the successes that the prize can boast is Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty that reached the bestseller lists in 2004. In addition, previous winners Life of Pi and Vernon God Little were also among the bestselling books of that year. In 2005, The Sea, by John Banville sold over a quarter of a million copies and greatly increased his popular recognition. Indeed, last year in 2008, Aravind Adiga and his novel, The White Tiger, became one of the fastest selling novels in the prize's history. The Man Booker Prize was first awarded in 1969 and continues to expand itself with the recent arrival of the Man Booker International Prize, which began awarding in 2005 and recognises the best in fiction writing every two years. |
| Posted: 30/09/2009 17:07:41 Last Updated: 30/09/2009 17:09:42 |
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