Man Booker Prize - Exodus Books

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Despite its name, the Man Booker Prize is also awarded to women. In some ways the British equivalent to the National Book Award, the Man Booker has been generally accepted as far more prestigious and difficult to obtain than any other literary prize for a single work. Awarded once a year to writers within the British Commonwealth (including territories and independent Commonwealth nations), the panel of judges is a cross-section of book-related professionals: authors, poets, librarians, booksellers, etc.

There has always been a left-wing bent to the Prize, with Marxists and liberals making the cut far more often than conservative writers. However, in 1980 the Prize was given to William Golding for his book Rites of Passage—Golding wrote from a distinctly Judeo-Christian perspective. Whatever your political or religious sentiments, it's difficult to dismiss these books: the Man Booker has typically gone to stylists of the highest mark whose books and ideas have hade broad influence and appeal (many of them have also won the Nobel Prize for Literature).

We don't carry most of the novels for which the Man Booker has been awarded, but we're working on bringing in the best of them. Sometimes the judges have made odd choices, preferring flash-in-the-pan hits to more enduring works. We're obviously not standing behind every book on the list, but if you want a pretty good idea of the nature of contemporary literature these titles will give it to you. Authors who've won the Prize more than once are particularly worth investigating, as well as those who've also won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.