BOOKER PRIZE winner Julian Barnes has been nominated for the prestigious Costa Book Awards for his novel, The Sense of an Ending.
London-based 65-year-old Barnes, who won the £50,000 Booker Prize in October, has been shortlisted for The Sense of an Ending for the Costa Novel Award along with John Burnside’s A Summer of Drowning, Andrew Miller’s Pure and Louisa Young’s My Dear I Wanted to Tell You.
The four-book shortlist was culled from 149 entries by three-person jury comprising of novelist Patrick Gale, bookshop owner Emma Milne-White and critic and journalist Michael Prodger and was announced in London on Tuesday night.
The jury described Barnes’ book as “the work of a superb writer with all the quiet confidence of maturity. A tale crafted with a watchmaker’s art that questions our ideas of truth and memory.”
The awards have five categories — novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children’s book — and an overall Costa Book of the Year is selected from the winners of these categories.
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Jackson bed removed from planned auction
The bed where Michael Jackson died is no longer for sale.
Julien’s Auctions has removed the queen-sized headboard from its auction of items from Jackson’s last residence.
Company president Darren Julien said on Tuesday the mattress was never for sale, but he removed the carved headboard seen in evidence photos during the trial of Jackson’s doctor from the sale at the request of Jackson’s estate.
The auction of art, furnishings and other items from the California home where Jackson lived with his three children is set for December 17.
Meanwhile, reports claim life of the “King of Pop” could be turned into a film, with early discussions between his estate and interested parties already underway. — AP
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Woman drops Bieber paternity suit: report
A woman who claimed that Justin Bieber was the father of her infant son has dropped a paternity suit against the pop star, US media said Wednesday, amid reports that he was preparing to file a counter suit.
Celebrity gossip site TMZ.Com reported that plaintiff Mariah Yeater, 20, who last week quietly revoked her suit against the singer, also had been abandoned by her legal team.
Bieber earlier this month said he would take a DNA test to prove that he did not father Yeater’s son, and then would countersue once the results come back, according to reports. — AFP