the man booker prize

the winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction was announced today: Irish writer John Banville for his novel The Sea. Banville was up against Julian Barnes (Arthur and George), Sebastian Barry (A Long Long Way), Kazuo Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go), Ali Smith (The Accidental) and Zadie Smith (On Beauty).

According to NPR this morning, Kazuo Ishiguro (who won in 1989 for The Remains of the Day) had been favored to win. On the Man Booker site, judging chair John Sutherland says:

The selection of a shortlist, the judges felt, was an unusually difficult process this year. There was sufficient quality for two distinguished lists . . . The strength of the year’s competition can be measured by the fact that three good books by previous Man Booker winners were finally not selected. This shortlist, we believe, witnesses to the remarkable quality of the current state of fiction . . ."

Now in its 37th year, the £50,000 competition is open citizens of the Commonwealth and Republic of Ireland. Previous winners include Yann Martel (Life of Pi), Margaret Atwood (The Blind Assassin) and Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient).