{"id":283277,"date":"2025-11-10T13:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T13:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/283277\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T13:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T13:38:08","slug":"andrew-miller-and-kiran-desai-are-favorites-to-win-the-booker-prize-for-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/283277\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Miller and Kiran Desai are favorites to win the Booker Prize for fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 British novelist Andrew Miller and Indian author Kiran Desai<\/a> are oddsmakers\u2019 favorites to win the Booker Prize<\/a> for fiction at a ceremony in London on Monday.<\/p>\n

They are among six finalists for the coveted literary award, which bring a 50,000-pound ($66,000) payday and a big boost to the winner\u2019s sales and profile.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s winner, chosen from among 153 submitted novels, is being picked by a judging panel that includes Irish writer Roddy Doyle<\/a> and \u201cSex and the City\u201d star Sarah Jessica Parker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

U.K. bookmaker William Hill on Friday put 15-8 odds on Miller taking the trophy for \u201cThe Land in Winter,\u201d a tale of love and secrets centered on two couples in rural England during the frigid winter of 1962-63. Miller, 64, was previously a Booker finalist in 2001 for \u201cOxygen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Desai, 54, was narrowly behind with 2-1 odds for \u201cThe Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,\u201d her first novel in two decades. The almost 700-page tale of two young Indians making their way in the United States around the turn of the millennium is Desai\u2019s third novel and her first since \u201cThe Inheritance of Loss,\u201d which won the Booker Prize in 2006.<\/p>\n

If she takes the prize, Desai will be the fifth two-time Booker winner, joining J.M. Coetzee, Peter Carey, Margaret Atwood<\/a> and Hilary Mantel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Online bookmaker Betway also made Miller the front-runner, followed by Desai.<\/p>\n

Hungarian-British writer David Szalay\u2019s \u201cFlesh,\u201d which charts one man\u2019s life across decades with unadorned naturalism, also was attracting bets in the days before the ceremony, according to bookies.<\/p>\n

The other contenders are Susan Choi\u2019s twisty family saga \u201cFlashlight\u201d; Katie Kitamura\u2019s tale of acting and identity, \u201cAudition\u201d; and midlife-crisis road trip \u201cThe Rest of Our Lives\u201d by Ben Markovits.<\/p>\n

Doyle \u2014 a Booker winner himself in 1993 for \u201cPaddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha\u201d \u2013 has said that all six books tackle big issues, including migration and class, in a \u201cbrilliantly human\u201d way.<\/p>\n

The Booker Prize was founded in 1969 and has established a reputation for transforming writers\u2019 careers. Its winners have included Salman Rushdie<\/a>, Ian McEwan<\/a>, Arundhati Roy<\/a> and Samantha Harvey,<\/a> who took the 2024 prize for space station story \u201cOrbital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally open to English-language novels from the U.K., Ireland and the Commonwealth, the prize expanded in 2014 to admit American writers. Worries about an American takeover have largely proved unfounded, though this year\u2019s six finalists include three U.S. writers \u2014 Choi, Kitamura and Markovits \u2014 and a fourth, Desai, who has long lived in New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 British novelist Andrew Miller and Indian author Kiran Desai are oddsmakers\u2019 favorites to win the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[47817,149709,3807,2692,107290,88,3865,793,130734,68553,2026,149711,107295,67969,1150,57952,149710,149707,47818,149712,13160,99,107302,149708,965],"class_list":["post-283277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-arundhati-roy","tag-ben-markovits","tag-books-and-literature","tag-celebrity","tag-david-szalay","tag-entertainment","tag-fiction","tag-general-news","tag-hilary-mantel","tag-ian-mcewan","tag-international-news","tag-j-m-coetzee","tag-katie-kitamura","tag-kiran-desai","tag-london","tag-margaret-atwood","tag-peter-carey","tag-roddy-doyle","tag-salman-rushdie","tag-samantha-harvey","tag-sarah-jessica-parker","tag-sports","tag-susan-choi","tag-william-hill","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}