Rushdie, Coetzee shortlisted for Best of Booker prize
Last Updated: Monday, May 12, 2008 | 12:43 PM ET
CBC News
Salman Rushdie delivers a public lecture about how the lives of writers intertwine with their work, hosted at Emory University where he is a writer in residence, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008, in Atlanta. (John Amis/Associated Press)Salman Rushdie, Nadine Gordimer and JM Coetzee are among the renowned authors shortlisted for the upcoming Best of the Booker prize, organizers announced Monday.
Organizers are now calling on the public to determine the winner through online voting on the Booker Prize website or via SMS messaging in the U.K.
Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981) won the Booker of Bookers award celebrating the prestigious prize's 25th anniversary in 1993. The novel, the Indian-born British author's second, has made the cut again.
He faces stiff competition, however, including from Australian writer Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda (1988) and South Africa-born JM Coetzee's Disgrace (1999). Carey and Coetzee, who took Australian citizenship in 2006, are the only writers to have won the Booker Prize twice. (Carey's other win came for True History of the Kelly Gang in 2001, while Coetzee's earlier win was for Life & Times of Michael K in 1983.)
Also shortlisted are South African author Nadine Gordimer for The Conservationist (1974), British writer Pat Barker for The Ghost Road (1995) and the late British author J.G. Farrell's The Seige of Krishnapur (1973).
A three-member panel selected the six shortlisted titles from the 41 past winners of the Booker Prize, awarded annually to the best work of fiction by an author from the Commonwealth or Ireland and considered one of the world's most prestigious literary honours.
Biographer, novelist and critic Victoria Glendinning, who chaired the panel, said the trio feels the shortlist represents "the best fiction-writing of the past 40 years and that each one of them will stand the test of time."
Soon after the announcement, British bookmakers released their odds on who they believe will win, with Rushdie favoured to take the title.
The winner of the Best of the Booker prize, established to mark the 40th anniversary of the English-language literary honour, will be announced in London on July 10.
