LONDON: Ian McEwan headlined the six-author shortlist announced on Thursday for the prestigious Man Booker Prize, one of the literary world's most important awards.
McEwan, who won the award with his 1998 novel, Amsterdam, was made the 6-4 favourite by bookmakers Ladbrokes, though the length of his latest book, On Chesil Beach -- or lack thereof, it is 176 pages long -- raised some eyebrows.
New Zealander Lloyd Jones was also listed as a favourite on the list, which does not include many well-known authors or any debutants, though one observer has hailed it as including "the next generation of authors".
According to the committee judging the shortlisted books, the "most-read novelists ... haven't been producing their greatest works this year."
Joel Rickett, deputy editor of The Bookseller , an industry magazine, said that this year was one "where the big authors haven't performed so it’s ushering in the next generation of authors."
"Booksellers will like the fact that Ian McEwan is on the list as you need a recognised name to bring authority to the others on the list," he added.
The other four books contending for the 50,000-pound (73,900-euro, 101,000-dollar) prize are Darkmans by Nicola Barker, The Gathering by Anne Enright, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid and Animal's People by Indra Sinha.
The winner will be announced on October 16. McEwan's On Chesil Beach is set on the Dorset coast, southern England, in the 1960s, and focuses on a shy couple's wedding night.
The judging committee described it as a "subtle exploration of the sexual politics of a bygone era."
Howard Davies, director of the London School of Economics and chair of the committee, dismissed suggestions that the book was not long enough to contend.
"We don't think it's at all slight in terms of its emotional steps. It's a very tight and very taut novel," he said.
The Man Booker Prize is awarded to the best work of fiction by an author from either the Commonwealth grouping of countries or the Republic of Ireland, with the winning novel virtually assured of a boost to sales.
Last year's winner was Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss , which was about the difficulties of life in post-colonial India and as an illegal immigrant.
No comments:
Post a Comment