Novel by Scots author Warner in the frame for Booker Prize
0 Comments | Herald, The; Glasgow (UK), Jul 28, 2010 | by Phil Miller
SCOTTISH writer Alan Warner is in the running to win the most prestigious award in literature, the Man Booker Prize for fiction.
Warner, from Connel, near Oban, has been included on the longlist for his novel The Stars in the Bright Sky.
The writer, whose other books include Morvern Callar and The Man Who Walks, wrote it as a sequel to another work, The Sopranos. Elsewhere in the list, Peter Carey, with Parrot and Olivier in America, could become the first author to scoop the prize three times, although Andrea Levy’s The Long Song is the bookies’ favourite to triumph.
Warner’s book was among 13 the award judges believe will provoke and entertain.
The list, whittled down from 138 works, also includes previously shortlisted authors David Mitchell, Damon Galgut, Howard Jacobson and former Booker judge Rose Tremain.
Carey won in 1988 for Oscar And Lucinda and 2001 for True History Of The Kelly Gang.
However, William Hill, the bookmaker, has made Levy’s book favourite this time, followed by Mitchell’s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.
Jacobson, longlisted twice before, appears with The Finkler Question. Galgut is nominated for In A Strange Room, while Tremain’s novel Trespass is a dark tale set in the region of Cevennes in France.
Sir Andrew Motion, chair of the judges, said authors’ past works had no bearing on the panel’s choices.
He said: “Here are 13 exceptional novels – books we have chosen for their intrinsic quality, without reference to the past work of their authors.
“Wide-ranging in their geography and their concern, they tell powerful stories which make the familiar strange and cover an enormous range of history and feeling.
“We feel confident that they will provoke and entertain.”
The winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction will receive pound(s)50,000 and can look forward to a sales boost and worldwide recognition.
Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, will receive pound(s)2500 and a designer bound edition of their book.
Last year’s winner was bookies’ favourite Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel’s novel about Henry VIII’s adviser Thomas Cromwell,
This year’s shortlist will be unveiled on September 7. The winner will be announced on October 12.
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