The Best of the Booker

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The Best of the Booker is a special prize awarded in commemoration of the Booker Prize's 40th anniversary. Eligible books included the 41 [A] winners of the Booker Prize since its inception in 1968. [1] The six shortlisted titles were announced on 12 May 2008 and were chosen by novelist Victoria Glendinning, broadcaster Mariella Frostrup and Professor of English at University College London John Mullan. [2] Among the nominees were the only two authors at that time to have won the Booker twice, Peter Carey and J. M. Coetzee, nominated for their novels Oscar & Lucinda (1988) and Disgrace (1999) respectively. [2]

The winner, as chosen by a public vote, was Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children , and was announced on July 10 at the London Literature Festival. [3] Midnight's Children not only won the 1981 Booker, but also the special 1993 Booker of Bookers prize, which commemorated the award's 25th anniversary. [1]

The shortlisted titles were:

Notes

Related Research Articles

The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The winner of the Booker Prize receives international publicity which usually leads to a sales boost. When the prize was first created, only novels written by Commonwealth, Irish, and South African citizens were eligible to receive the prize; in 2014 it was widened to any English-language novel—a change that proved controversial. A seven-person panel constituted by authors, librarians, literary agents, publishers, and booksellers is appointed by the Booker Prize Foundation.

Peter Carey (novelist) Australian novelist

Peter Philip Carey AO is an Australian novelist. Carey has won the Miles Franklin Award three times and is frequently named as Australia's next contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Carey is one of only five writers to have won the Booker Prize twice—the others being J. G. Farrell, J. M. Coetzee, Hilary Mantel and Margaret Atwood. Carey won his first Booker Prize in 1988 for Oscar and Lucinda, and won for the second time in 2001 with True History of the Kelly Gang. In May 2008 he was nominated for the Best of the Booker Prize.

Salman Rushdie British-American novelist (born 1947)

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magical realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent.

<i>Shame</i> (Rushdie novel) 1983 novel by Salman Rushdie

Shame is Salman Rushdie's third novel, published in 1983. This book was written out of a desire to approach the problem of "artificial" (other-made) country divisions, their residents' complicity, and the problems of post-colonialism when Pakistan was created to separate the Muslims from the Hindus after Britain gave up control of India.

<i>Midnights Children</i> 1981 novel by Salman Rushdie

Midnight's Children is a 1981 novel by Salman Rushdie, published by Jonathan Cape with cover design by Bill Botten, about India's transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition. It is a postcolonial, postmodern and magical realist story told by its chief protagonist, Saleem Sinai, set in the context of historical events. The style of preserving history with fictional accounts is self-reflexive.

<i>Oscar and Lucinda</i> Novel by Australian author Peter Carey

Oscar and Lucinda is a novel by Australian author Peter Carey which won the 1988 Booker Prize and the 1989 Miles Franklin Award. It was shortlisted for The Best of the Booker.

J. M. Coetzee Acclaimed English-language writer and scholar

John Maxwell Coetzee is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language. He has won the Booker Prize (twice), the CNA Prize (thrice), the Jerusalem Prize, the Prix Femina étranger, and The Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and holds a number of other awards and honorary doctorates.

<i>The Satanic Verses</i> 1988 novel by Salman Rushdie

The Satanic Verses is the fourth novel of British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie. First published in September 1988, the book was inspired by the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical realism and relied on contemporary events and people to create his characters. The title refers to the Satanic Verses, a group of Quranic verses about three pagan Meccan goddesses: Allāt, Al-Uzza, and Manāt. The part of the story that deals with the "satanic verses" was based on accounts from the historians al-Waqidi and al-Tabari.

Mohammed Hanif British Pakistani writer and journalist (born 1964)

Mohammed Hanif is a British Pakistani writer and journalist who writes a monthly opinion piece in The New York Times.

The Jaipur Literature Festival, or JLF, is an annual literary festival which takes place in the India city of Jaipur each January. It was founded in 2006. It is the world's largest free literary festival.

World Book Club is a radio programme on the BBC World Service. Each edition of the programme, which is broadcast on the first Saturday of the month with repeats into the following Monday, features a famous author discussing one of his or her books, often the most well-known one, with the public. Since the programme began in 2002 it has been presented by Harriett Gilbert.

Abdulrazak Gurnah Novelist and Nobel laureate (born 1948)

Abdulrazak Gurnah is a Tanzanian-born British novelist and academic. He was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee during the Zanzibar Revolution. His novels include Paradise (1994), which was shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize; Desertion (2005); and By the Sea (2001), which was longlisted for the Booker and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Aravind Adiga is an Indian writer and journalist. His debut novel, The White Tiger, won the 2008 Man Booker Prize.

Saleem Sinai is the protagonist of the Booker Prize-winning novel Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. His life is closely intertwined with the events that take place in his homeland of pre- and post-colonial India, and newly created Pakistan and Bangladesh. He is born at the moment in time when India and Pakistan emerge from British rule and lives during the new tumultuous struggles that engulf the new nations following 15 August 1947. Sinai embodies these physical struggles and rifts during, and serves as a metaphor for, the spiritual, religious, political and intellectual traumas of the young nations.

Carl Nixon is a New Zealand novelist, short story writer and playwright. He has written four novels and a number of original plays which have been performed throughout New Zealand, as well as adapting both Lloyd Jones' novel The Book of Fame and Nobel prize winner J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace for the stage.

Sunjeev Sahota is a British novelist whose first novel, Ours are the Streets, was published in January 2011 and whose second novel, The Year of the Runaways, was shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize and was awarded a European Union Prize for Literature in 2017.

The National Book Council Banjo Awards were presented by the National Book Council of Australia from 1974 to 1997 for works of fiction and non-fiction. The name commemorates the bush poet Andrew Barton Banjo Paterson. The Council has enjoyed notable leadership including Justice Michael Kirby and Professor Michael Fraser (1991–1998). Many notable Australian writers have been recipients for this award, including Peter Carey, Tim Winton, Alan Gould, Liam Davison, Sally Morrison, and Roger McDonald. In 1978 Helen Garner was the first woman to win the award for her novel Monkey Grip. The current Banjo Paterson Writing Award, established in 1991, is separate to the above awards, although similarly aims to commemorate the work of Banjo Paterson.

<i>A Brief History of Blasphemy</i> 1990 book by Richard Webster

A Brief History of Blasphemy: Liberalism, Censorship and the Satanic Verses is a 1990 book by Richard Webster, in which the author discusses the controversy over Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses (1988). Webster critiques the freedom to blaspheme, and argues against The Crime of Blasphemy.

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 2022.

References

  1. 1 2 Pauli, Michelle (21 February 2008). "Best of the Booker' pits Rushdie against 40 pretenders". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 July 2008.
  2. 1 2 "The Best of the Booker shortlist announced". The Man Booker Prizes. 12 May 2008. Archived from the original on 17 May 2008. Retrieved 12 July 2008.
  3. "Rushdie wins Best of Booker prize". BBC News. 10 July 2008.