The winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize for Fiction will be announced tomorrow. The Post's critics assess the contenders for one of the most prestigious awards for English-language fiction
THE MOST EAGERLY anticipated award in the literary calendar reaches its climax tomorrow with the announcement of the winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize for Fiction at a ceremony in London. In a year The Observer newspaper has described as 'the richest for contemporary British and Commonwealth fiction since the launch of the prize in 1969', the panel of five judges has whittled a longlist of 17 contenders down to six finalists.
The Booker, which has come to be seen as the ultimate literary showdown, aims to reward the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Heavyweights to have fallen by the wayside already this year include two-time winner J. M. Coetzee, Ian McEwan, whose Saturday was an early favourite and who won the prize in 1998, and Salman Rushdie, whose Midnight's Children not only won the Booker Prize in 1981, but also won the so-called Booker of Bookers in 1993.
For the winner, the Booker will bring prize money of #50,000 (about $680,000) and worldwide acclaim. It's recognised as the ultimate accolade by many writers. As 1996 winner Graham Swift said: 'Prizes don't make writers and writers don't write to win prizes, but in the near-glut of literary awards now on offer, the Booker remains special. It's the one which, if we're completely honest, we most covet.'
Here are the contenders, their odds and what the South China Morning Post's critics have to say about them:
John Banville
The Sea
