EUROPE 
Rushdie wins 'best Booker' prize
Friday, 11 July, 2008
Salman Rushdie (Getty)
Controversial author Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children has been named the best ever Booker Prize winner, in a contest to mark the prestigious award's 40th birthday.
The Indian-born British author's second novel edged out five others chosen from the 41 winners of the highly-regarded prize, in a public vote.
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The annual Booker Prize goes to the best work of fiction by an author from the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.
Odds-on favourite Midnight's Children was Indian-born Rushdie's second novel and won the 1981 Booker. It also scooped the Booker of Bookers - the only other time a celebratory award has been created for the prize - in 1993.
New York resident Rushdie, 61, who is touring the United States to promote his latest novel, The Enchantress Of Florence, said the honour was "marvellous news".
Satanic Verses controversy
"I'm absolutely delighted and would like to thank all those readers around the world who voted for Midnight's Children," he said in a pre-recorded message.
His sons Zafar and Milan were at London's Southbank Centre to collect the prize.
Rushdie, best known for his 1988 work, The Satanic Verses, was honoured with a knighthood by Britain last year, prompting protestors in Pakistan to burn his effigy.
The Satanic Verses prompted Iran's then spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa against him the following year for blaspheming Islam.
Five other books were nominated for the 'best ever Booker' prize by a panel of judges.
They were: Disgrace by South African-born author JM Coetzee, which won the 1999 Booker; The Siege of Krishnapur by the late British writer JG Farrell (1973); The Conservationist by South African novelist Nadine Gordimer (1974); Australian author Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda (1988) and The Ghost Road by British writer Pat Barker (1995).
'The right choice'
Novelist and critic Victoria Glendinning, who chaired the judges, said: "The readers have spoken - in their thousands. And we do believe that they have made the right choice."
She said the panel felt the six nominated novels represented the best fiction-writing of the past four decades and each would stand the test of time.
Some 7,801 people voted online or by text message, with 36 percent plumping for Midnight's Children. Votes came in from across the world, with 37 per cent of online votes from Britain and 27 per cent from North America.
More than half the voters were aged under 35.
A total of 41 books have won the prize since it was launched in 1969, because the award was shared in 1974 and 1992.
Contenders must have been published in the past year and originally written in English.
Booker Prize nomination all but guarantees worldwide readership and an upsurge in book sales.
Source: AFP/SBS
The Indian-born British author's second novel edged out five others chosen from the 41 winners of the highly-regarded prize, in a public vote.
IN DEPTH: More arts and entertainment stories
The annual Booker Prize goes to the best work of fiction by an author from the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.
Odds-on favourite Midnight's Children was Indian-born Rushdie's second novel and won the 1981 Booker. It also scooped the Booker of Bookers - the only other time a celebratory award has been created for the prize - in 1993.
New York resident Rushdie, 61, who is touring the United States to promote his latest novel, The Enchantress Of Florence, said the honour was "marvellous news".
Satanic Verses controversy
"I'm absolutely delighted and would like to thank all those readers around the world who voted for Midnight's Children," he said in a pre-recorded message.
His sons Zafar and Milan were at London's Southbank Centre to collect the prize.
Rushdie, best known for his 1988 work, The Satanic Verses, was honoured with a knighthood by Britain last year, prompting protestors in Pakistan to burn his effigy.
The Satanic Verses prompted Iran's then spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa against him the following year for blaspheming Islam.
Five other books were nominated for the 'best ever Booker' prize by a panel of judges.
They were: Disgrace by South African-born author JM Coetzee, which won the 1999 Booker; The Siege of Krishnapur by the late British writer JG Farrell (1973); The Conservationist by South African novelist Nadine Gordimer (1974); Australian author Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda (1988) and The Ghost Road by British writer Pat Barker (1995).
'The right choice'
Novelist and critic Victoria Glendinning, who chaired the judges, said: "The readers have spoken - in their thousands. And we do believe that they have made the right choice."
She said the panel felt the six nominated novels represented the best fiction-writing of the past four decades and each would stand the test of time.
Some 7,801 people voted online or by text message, with 36 percent plumping for Midnight's Children. Votes came in from across the world, with 37 per cent of online votes from Britain and 27 per cent from North America.
More than half the voters were aged under 35.
A total of 41 books have won the prize since it was launched in 1969, because the award was shared in 1974 and 1992.
Contenders must have been published in the past year and originally written in English.
Booker Prize nomination all but guarantees worldwide readership and an upsurge in book sales.
Source: AFP/SBS
