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27/08/2004
'Cloud Atlas' Favourite to Capture Booker Prize
British Author David Mitchell was installed as runaway favorite on Thursday to capture the Man Booker Prize, one of the world's top literary awards, for his ambitious, multi-layered novel "Cloud Atlas."
Mitchell, a hot 3-1 favorite to capture the Booker's 50,000 pound prize, leads a crowded longlist of lesser-known and first-time novelists that ignored big names such as VS Naipaul and Louis de Bernieres.
The 22 books named yesterday that will vie for the prestigious prize include Nicola Barker's "Clear: A Transparent Novel," Nicholas Shakespeare's "Snowleg" and Alan Hollinghurst's "The Line of Beauty."
"This has been a very rich year for fiction and we have a strong and varied longlist," said Chris Smith, chair of the judges.
"The list is a mixture of seriousness and fun; it ranges across several continents (and) it goes back and forward in time," he added.
Bookmakers made Mitchell the favorite to scoop the 2004 award for "Cloud Atlas," his third novel, in which six narratives are overlapped in daring style with stark shifts in genre and voice.
Critics have variously hailed the book as "grand fiction" and "dizzying" -- but its detractors sniffingly wrote it off as a "baggy monster."
"We have been inundated with people wanting to back this book ever since it was published and I am in no doubt that it will reach the shortlist and probably go on to win the Booker," said Graham Sharpe from bookmaker William Hill.
The Booker was launched in 1969 and rewards the best novel of the last 12 months by an author from a Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland
DBC Pierre won last year with his debut novel "Vernon God Little," the story of a boy who becomes embroiled in the aftermath of a high school massacre.
A shortlist of six books will be chosen on September 21 and the 2004 winner will be announced on October 19.
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