The “Lost Man Booker Prize” has been awarded to……..the wrong book.
The designated “best book” of 1970 has finally won its Man Booker prize. Troubles, by J. G. Farrell, was anointed the winner of the “Lost Man Booker Prize,†a one-time-only award intended to honor the books that “missed out an opportunity to win the Booker Prize in 1970″.
4,000 readers worldwide cast their votes for their favourite shortlisted novel via the Man Booker Prize website – with Troubles taking 38% of the vote, more than double that of other contenders. Harumph.
Voters chose from a shortlist of six selected by a panel of three judges, all of whom were born in or around 1970. The shortlist included The Birds on the Trees by Nina Bawden (Virago); The Bay of Noon by Shirley Hazzard (Virago); Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault (Arrow); The Vivisector by Patrick White (Vintage) and my pick – which I talked in length about last month – The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark (Penguin).
