The Man Booker Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in the literary world. "Any full-length novel, written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland and published this year, is eligible for the prize. The novel must be an original work in English (not a translation) and must not be self-published.
The judging panel changes each year. Every effort is made to achieve a balance between the judges of gender, articulacy and role, so that the panel includes a literary critic, an academic, a literary editor, a novelist and a major figure. A judge is rarely enrolled a second time."
The prize has been awarded every year since 1969. There were joint winners twice, in 1974 and 1992, meaning that 42 novels, and counting, have been awarded the prize.
I thought it would be fun to read all the Man Booker Prize winning novels. So, I'm going to give it a bash, and post small reviews (around 300 words) of each book here. Hmm, this is probably going to take a while...
6 comments:
Whew, this is a project!! Best of luck! Now I have a built-in gift list for you, lol.
Haha! That was the idea all along!
I'm trying to read them all too!
Good luck with your project - I'm interested to read your opinions on them.
Thanks! So far, so good.
I hope this blog stays active. I joined the Booker winner group on shelfari, but none of the members are active.
I love the Bookers. I think the Brits have higher standards than Americans, which is why the Pulitzers are good stories, but the writing is average. I think the Pulitzers of late are closer to popular fiction while the Bookers have been literary fiction. I just hope the Booker maintains it high standards.
Wemdy
Hi Wendy, thanks for the comment. Did you hear that they won't be awarding a Pulitzer for fiction this year? Something very wrong there.
I don't know about the Brits having higher standards, because there's a lot of rubbish published in Britain every year, but I do think that the Booker Prize has a great advantage in being able to consider such a wide range (books written in English by British, Irish and Commonwealth authors). That means many times more books can be considered for the Booker than for the Pulitzer.
Anyway, glad you like the blog!
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