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International

Dark horse wins Man Booker Prize

Hasan Suroor

Irish author beats competition from Ian McEwan

— PHOTO: AFP

Irish author Anne Enright celebrates after winning the Man Booker Prize for ‘The Gathering’ on Tuesday in London.

LONDON: Predictably, the two South Asian contenders for this year’s Man Booker Prize — Indra Sinha and Mohsin Hamid — fell by the wayside, as a little-known Irish writer, Anne Enright, was declared the surprise winner of the £50,000 award for her novel ‘The Gathering.’

The judges hailed it as a “powerful” and “unflinching” study of a grieving, dysfunctional family.

“People will be pretty excited when they read it,” said Howard Davies, chair of the judges and Director of the London School of Economics.

The choice raised eyebrows as well as prompted praise for the jury’s bold move to pluck a rank outsider. Sir Howard admitted that the decision was “tight” suggesting a lack of happy unanimity.

Perhaps nobody was more surprised than the 45-year-old author herself as she beat Ian McEwan and Lloyd Jones, the two front-runners, to win the English-speaking world’s most coveted literary prize.

“I’m still churning it through … I was ready for anything — possibly anything except that,” a slightly breathless Ms. Enright told the BBC.

Ms. Enright, who has written three other novels, a collection of stories and a work of non-fiction, emerged as the dark horse confounding both critics and bookies who had been rooting for Mr McEwan’s “On Chesil Beach,” about the anxieties of a young couple on their wedding night; and Jones’s “Mister Pip,” which uses Charles Dickens’s ‘Great Expectations’ to explore issues of clash of cultures, white supremacy, colonialism, and the power of literature.

No tears, however, were shed for Mr. Sinha’s ‘Animal’s People’, a take on the Bhopal gas tragedy; and Hamid’s ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’, an unconvincing story of a young Pakistani who turns against America. Indeed, despite the excitement in Asian circles, neither was ever in serious contention. British novelist Nicola Barker was the sixth contender.

Commenting on the winning novel, Sir Howard admitted that it was “depressing” and “bleak” at times but said: “‘The Gathering’ is an unflinching look at a grieving family in tough and striking language. … We think she is an impressive novelist, we expect to hear a lot more from her.”

Ms. Enright, who was a television producer before she turned to writing after suffering depression, tells the story of a sprawling unhappy family in first person — narrated by her protagonist who revisits three generations of her family when her brother commits suicide.

“I heartily recommend having a breakdown young. Because then you make your decisions and get on with it,” she said.

Asked how she proposed to spend the prize money — a “regulation” question put to every winner year after year — Ms. Enright said she needed a “new kitchen.”

“I had forgotten about the money and now I’m glad I bought that dress yesterday,” she quipped.

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