Judges drop favourites from Booker shortlist

11.30am - By CHRIS GRAY

The Booker prize judges surprised the literary world yesterday by omitting Zadie Smith and other favoured contenders from their shortlist.

Smith's new novel, The Autograph Man, had begun as joint second favourite out of 20 to win Britain's most prestigious literary award but fell by the wayside when the field was narrowed to six.

Also rejected by the judges yesterday were Who's Sorry Now, by Howard Jacobson, which was the initial favourite, and Any Human Heart, by William Boyd, whom the bookies ranked with Smith when the longlist was unveiled last month.

Other big literary names, such as Anita Brookner and Will Self, were also left off the shortlist.

The final six novels selected were Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, a Spanish-born writer living in Canada; Family Matters, by Rohinton Mistry, who was born in Bombay but has lived in Canada since 1975; Unless by Carol Shields, also from Canada; Dirt Music by the Australian writer Tim Winton; The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor, who has been twice shortlisted for the Booker; and Fingersmith by Welsh-born Sarah Waters.

The shortlist contains the highest number of writers from outside Britain since 1993, and Lisa Jardine, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary College, University of London, who chairs the 2002 judges, said the "wonderfully diverse" selection showed the importance of the prize being open to the Commonwealth.

Smith, whose debut novel, White Teeth, is being serialised on Channel 4, only narrowly missed the final six.

"It was very close. There were 10 books in strong contention, 10 fabulous books, and five judges with distinctive tastes. Zadie Smith didn't fail in anything, other authors triumphed," Professor Jardine said.

Another source close to the selection procedure said: "There were just other books that were better."

The shortlist was chosen only after "animated discussion" and several judges changed their minds, Professor Jardine said.

"It was such a harmonious process arriving at the shortlist that I'm terrified of trying to choose a winner."

The judging panel, made up of the comedian David Baddiel, the novelists Russell Celyn Jones and Salley Vickers and the journalist Erica Wagner, meets again on 22 October to choose the winner of the prize, which is now called the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2002 after its new sponsor, Man Group Plc.

This year's winner will receive £52,500 (NZ$173,000) compared with £30,000 in previous years. Each of the shortlisted authors receives £2,500.

Publishers are allowed to enter two books and Professor Jardine complained they tended to submit only "heavyweight" and humourless works, wrongly believing they were more likely to win. She would have liked to consider more popular books, such as Porno by Irvine Welsh, but they were not entered.

Baddiel said publishers tended to submit "not very funny" books that had "a vulgar and obvious seriousness. I think there's lots of popular fiction which could easily be submitted for the Booker."

- INDEPENDENT


Read Herald reviews of the Booker Prize shortlist: