British author J.G. Farrell’s Troubles has been announced as the winner of the Lost Man Booker Prize.
The book beat competition from the six-book shortlist which included The Birds on the Trees by British author Nina Bawden, The Bay of Noon by Australian Shirley Hazzard, Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault, The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark and The Vivisector by Patrick White. This special prize was launched to honour books published in 1970 which missed out on the opportunity to win the Booker Prize. Bernice Rubens was awarded the Booker Prize in 1970 for The Elected Member and Sir Vidia Naipaul won the prize for In a Free State in 1971. British author of Indian origin Shiva Naipaul had been selected in the longlist, but did not make the six-book shortlist.
The shortlist was chosen by three-member judging panel, comprising of journalist and critic Rachel Cooke, newsreader Katie Derham and poet and novelist Tobias Hill. However, the winner of the Lost Man Booker Prize was decided online by people around the world. It won by a clear majority, winning 38 per cent of the votes, more than double the votes cast for any other book on the shortlist.
“Troubles is a novel of such lasting quality that it has never been out of print in the 40 years since it was first published. Had this been the winning novel in 1970, J.G. Farrell would have gone on to become the first author to win the Booker Prize twice,” Ion Trewin, literary director of the Man Booker Prizes said.
The prize, a designer-bound first edition copy of the book, was accepted by J.G. Farrell’s brother, Richard Farrell, on the author’s behalf. J.G. Farrell died in 1979. The winner was announced by Lady Antonia Fraser, who was a judge for the Booker Prize in both 1970 and 1971, at a party in London on Wednesday evening.