Rushdie, Arundhati to vie for 'Best of the Booker' prize

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Agencies

Posted online: Thursday , February 21, 2008 at 02:39:56
Updated: Thursday , February 21, 2008 at 02:59:09

London, February 21: India-born authors Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy would be among those vying for the The Best of the Booker, a one-off award to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the prestigious literary prize.

The Best of the Booker will honour the finest novel to have won the The Man Booker Prize for Fiction since it was first awarded on April 22, 1969, the organisers announced on Thursday.

In all, 41 novels will be eligible for the award, including Rushdie's Midnight Children, Roy's God of Small Things and Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss.

This is the second time that a celebratory award has been created by the Man Booker prize organisers. In 1993 – the 25th anniversary -- Rushdie won the Booker of Bookers for Midnight's Children.

The Best of the Booker will, for the first time, invite the public to help decide which novel deserves to take this prestigious one-off award. The public will choose from a shortlist of six novels to be selected by a panel of judges chaired by novelist and critic Victoria Glendinning.

The two other judges on the panel are writer and broadcaster Mariella Frostrup and John Mullan, Professor of English at University College London.

Their shortlist will be announced in May, and public voting will then begin here on the Man Booker Prize website.

Glendinning said on Thursday: "The Best of the Booker is a wonderful opportunity to read, or reread, some of the best literature in English of the past four decades. We are having a very good time revisiting the now-classic novels which won the Booker long ago, as well as the celebrated ones from recent years."

"All readers will enjoy this, and we look forward to hearing what the voters think -- and which one, from our shortlist, they will judge the Best of the Booker."

The winner of the Best of the Booker ill be announced atthe London Literature Festival in July, accompanied by a series of events debating and celebrating the prize. The winner will be awarded a custom-made trophy.

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Comments - 2

prize goes to by ray lane on 22 Feb 2008

While Rushdie is a truly secular and talented person, Arundhati Roy is a hardcore anti hindu communalist and hate monger

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Arundhati looks good as a loser. by Raju on 22 Feb 2008

I will be happy if hypocrate Arundhati don't get it. I heard her talking when she got first Booker, she was speaking of India and its leadership as if she is the only wise ass in India! When she talk of all poor, but when she win the booker, no place I read that she share any of that money with poor of India.

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Judge the Booker by the Book by Ankur on 22 Feb 2008

This is in reference to the post by one Mr. Raju above who will be happy if "hypocrate" Roy doesn't win the prize. Alas, his reasons on deciding that she doesn't deserve the prize are not based on her literary merit but rather because of his personal disgust towards her. Regarding the sharing the prize money too he has taken a wrong view. Firstly, many a times people who donate money for the needy don't feel the need of declaring to the whole world about the same. Secondly, even assuming that she hasn't donated money for the poor, she has stood for the causes that affect the poor. She could have chosen to lead a glamours life post the Booker award but she decided to stand for the needy and that speaks volume about the lady.

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