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November 1-15, 2003 Edition
First-Time Novelist Wins
Man Booker Fiction Prize
LONDON/10/14/03Australian-born author DBC Pierre was named winner of the 2003 Man Booker Prize for Fiction on October 14. He will earn £50,000 ($80,000) with a satirical tale of contemporary America, titles Vernon God Little, and published by Faber & Faber.
Vernon God Little portrays a fifteen year old boy, innocently accused of a high school massacre. DBC Pierre’s unique novel has been described as like “Flannery O’Connor on an overdose of amphetamines and cable television.” The author is an internationally published cartoonist, who was born in Australia, grew up in Mexico and now resides in Ireland.
Chair of the judges, Professor John Carey, made the announcement at the awards dinner at the Great Court of the British Museum, which was broadcast live on BBC TWO and BBC FOUR. Harvey McGrath, Chairman of Man Group plc, presented DBC Pierre with a check for £50,000.
Beyond the prize of £50,000, DBC Pierre is guaranteed an increase in sales and recognition worldwide. Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, receives £2,500 and a designer-bound edition of their book.
The judging panel for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2003 is: writer, academic and broadcaster Professor John Carey (Chair); writer, academic and critic A.C. Grayling; record-breaking mountaineer and journalist Rebecca Stephens, MBE; novelist, broadcaster and presenter Francine Stock; and novelist, biographer and literary critic D.J. Taylor.
The other novels shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize were:
Monica Ali Brick Lane Doubleday Margaret Atwood Oryx and Crake Bloomsbury Zoë Heller Notes on a Scandal Viking Penguin Clare Morrall Astonishing Splashes of Colour Tindal Street Press Damon Galgut The Good Doctor Atlantic Books
D B C Pierre was born in June 1961 in Australia, brought up in Mexico, and has lived on both sides of the border. He has worked as a designer and is internationally published as a cartoonist. Vernon God Little won the 2003 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic writing. He currently lives in Ireland.
The book was published by Cannongate, a small Scotland-based publisher, and Faber & Faber owns the UK rights. The title had sold about 7,000 or 8,000 copies before being short-listed for the Booker. Now, sales are expected to soar to one million this month.
The Man Booker Prize, now in its thirty-fifth year, aims to reward the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. The Man Booker judges are selected from the country’s finest critics, writers and academics to maintain the consistent excellence of the prize. The winner of the Man Booker Prize receives £50,000 and both the winner and the shortlisted authors are guaranteed a worldwide readership plus a dramatic increase in book sales.
Man Group plc is a leading global provider of alternative investment products and solutions as well as one of the world’s largest futures brokers. The Group employs over 1,900 people in 15 countries, with key centres in London, Pfäffikon (Switzerland), Chicago, New York, Paris, Singapore and Sydney. Man Group plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1994 and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index.
