Barnes the favourite to take home Booker
18.10.2011
The Man Booker Prize may have it’s detractors – and even a new award, The Literature Prize, to rival it – but tonight all eyes will be on London’s Guildhall where the winner of this year’s award will be announced.
On the shortlist this year are: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending; Carol Birch, Jamrach's Menagerie; Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers; Esi Edugyan, Half Blood Blues; Stephen Kelman, Pigeon English; and AD Miller, Snowdrops.
Irish writer Sebastian Barry did feature on the long-list with On Canaan’s Side, but he did not make the shortlist, which was announced on 6 September.
The current bookies’ favourite is Barnes, with William Hill saying more than 50pc of all bets on the Man Booker Prize had been for the writer, who has been shortlisted for the prize on three previous occasions, for Arthur and George (2005), England, England (1998) and Flaubert's Parrot (1984). His book centres on our concept of memory and how we remember the past. It focuses on a middle-aged man reflecting on the paths he and his childhood friends have taken as the past catches up with him via a bequeathed diary.
The judges' selection also includes two first time novelists – Kelman and Miller – while four of the books are from independent publishers. Birch was longlisted in 2003 for Turn Again Home. Two Canadian writers feature on the shortlist – deWitt and Edugyan – along with four British novelists.
The winner will receive £50,000 and each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, will receive £2,500 and a designer bound edition of their book. Last year's winner, The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson, has sold over 250,000 copies in the UK alone.
Although this year has been the most popular Booker shortlist since records began (sales of the six novels have exceeded those of any other Booker shortlist, with Snowdrops the bestselling book), it has not been without controversy.
Certain critics have accused the Booker judges of dumbing down, and one group of literary leading lights has announced a rival award, The Literature Prize, which counts among its supporters John Banville, Pat Barker, Mark Haddon, Jackie Kay and David Mitchell.
The award's backers claimed the Booker “now prioritises a notion of 'readability' over artistic achievement”.
Ion Trewin, the Booker's literary director, dismissed the announcement as “a minor distraction”.