fter months of commotion and speculation, this year’s Man Booker Prize culminated in the presentation of what is widely regarded as the UK’s most prestigious literary award to one of six shortlisted authors.
To sentimental overtures, the process of screening a longlist, selecting a shortlist and finally nominating a winner was concluded with the customary exchange of double-cheek-kissing at London’s Guildhall, where Eleanor Catton was announced as the winner of the 2013 award. The prize was awarded for Catton’s second novel, The Luminaries, a masterfully structured mystery set against the goldfields of 19th century New Zealand. The chairman of the judging panel, Robert Macfarlane, described the book as a “dazzling work, luminous, vast” and “a novel of astonishing control.”
Amongst the other shortlisted writers was former Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri for her historical novel, The Lowland, which portrays the ideological divergence of two brothers in 1960s Bengal. Three-time shortlisted Booker veteran, Colm Toibin, was recognised this year for his novella The Testament of Mary. Also in the shortlist were Noviolet Bulawayo’s account of the lives of Zimbabwean urchins, We Need New Names, Jim Crace’s unsettling narrative detailing the disintegration of an agrarian community, Harvest; and Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being, which focuses on the lives of two distinctly different women linked by the serendipitous discovery of a diary.
At 28, Catton is the youngest recipient of the coveted accolade, and, at an epic 848 pages, The Luminaries is also the longest work ever to win. Runner-up Jhumpa Lahiri was also responsible for a new Booker record, albeit it in a much less esteemed catergory, for the lowest stakes ever placed on a shortlisted author: the paltry sum of £24.
Yet, these were not the only records established during the 2013 competition. Significantly, the conclusion of this year’s competition marked “the end of a Booker era”, according to Peter Stothard, editor of the Times Literary Supplement. Booker 2013 was the final year in which, under the established entry criteria, only works by authors living and writing in the Commowealth,the Republic of Ireland, or Zimbabwe were eligible for nomination to the longlist. From the 2014 event onwards, all authors writing in English, on the condition that they are published in the UK, will be eligible for consideration.
Of course, with publishing firms currently limited to only two entries each, the trans-Atlantic threat of Usonian penmen competing with British and Commonwealth writers has expectedly met with disapproval and controversy. Moreover, with the judges reading lists at 151 titles this year, they’re unlikely to greatly increase the number of submissions to accommodate the swell of newly eligible titles.
It remains to be seen whether this significant alteration to the character of the Booker will establish a truly international prize, the Booker International having gone to American authors in the last two years of its conferral. As the novelist and former Booker finalist Linda Grant has portentously stated, before there were “two career-changing prizes, the Booker and the Pulitzer”. British and Commonwealth authors will now face “more competition for a career-changing prize, whereas U.S. authors will have a new prize”.