NEWS
EVENTS
Jim Crace early favourite for 2013 Man Booker Prize
Other | Tuesday 15th October 2013 | Harry
Jim Crace recently announced that his most recent work Harvest could prove to be his last. The novel explores the forgotten violence of the Enclosure movement in 18th Century rural Britain and has emerged as the early favourite for the award. If Harvest proves to be Crace’s swan song, winning the 2013 Man Booker Prize would prove a fitting finale to an extensive and illustrious writing career.
Other contenders include Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, a nomination which makes Catton the youngest ever Booker Prize shortlisted author at just 28 years old. At a substantial 800 pages, Catton’s second major work is a sprawling mystery of a novel, and is a close second in the running for the award.
Colm Toibin, earning a place on his third booker prize shortlist, could well prove to be this year’s dark horse. The Testament of Mary is celebrated as the most emotionally striking and affected work on the list. Toibin writes from the perspective of Jesus’ mother in the latter stages of her life, struggling to come to terms with her son’s legacy. Tobin delivers all this in just over a hundred pages, and if anything it could be the text's slimness that stands between him and the prize.
2013 also sees Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland, Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale For the Time Being and NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names earn a place on the six-strong shortlist. However, the bookies consider this a three horse race, with Harvest, The Luminaries and The Testament of Mary leagues in front of the competition, William Hill placing them at 5/4, 11/4 and 4/1 respectively.
