The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is literary prize awarded each year to a full-length novel written in English by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland or Zimbabwe. Originally known as the Booker-McConnell Prize, the award is now more commonly referred to as The Booker. The selection process begins with the formation of an advisory committee, which then selects the judging panel from leading literary critics, writers, academics and public figures. The longlist is whittled down to a shortlist of 6 books, from which a winner is chosen in early October. Winning The Booker, or even getting onto the shortlist, can catapult a book into the bestseller lists and dramatically increase the sales of an author’s backlist titles. The winner of the Man Booker Prize receives £50 000.
The winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson, was announced on Tuesday 12th October.
The winners over the past decade are:
- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2009)
- The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (2008)
- The Gathering by Anne Enright (2007)
- The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (2006)
- The Sea by John Banville (2005)
- The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
- Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre (2003)
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2002)
- True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (2001)
- The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (2000).
2010 Winner:
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The Finkler Question
Howard Jacobson |
2010 Shortlist:
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Parrot and Olivier in America
Peter Carey |
 |
Room
Emma Donoghue |
 |
In a Strange Room
Damon Galgut |
 |
The Long Song
Andrea Levy |
 |
C
Tom McCarthy |