Culture

Salman Rushdie Wins Best of Booker Prize

by Jarrett Martineau | July 10, 2008 at 01:50 pm

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Acclaimed author Salman Rushdie has beat out an esteemed list of finalists, including J.M. Coetzee, Peter Carey, and Nadine Gordimer, to win the "Best of the Booker" prize for his celebrated novel Midnight's Children. The award was the result of a reader-voted contest to commemorate the Booker's 40th anniversary.

What a journey is has been for Mr. Rushdie, since the many years he spent in hiding, following the fatwa declared on him following the 1988 publication of his controversial novel The Satanic Verses.

Salman Rushdie can be thought of as the Booker Prize's favourite author now, after the Indian-born British novelist scored his third trophy on Thursday.

Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children has won a third Booker Prize — this time the publicly voted Best of the Booker competition held to name the most outstanding winner of the award's four-decade history.

The 61-year-old author, who is promoting his latest title The Enchantress of Florence in the U.S., was unable to attend the London ceremony and sent his sons to accept the honour.

"It's a wonderful alternative to have my real children accepting the prize on behalf of my imaginary children," Rushdie said in a pre-recorded message.

"I'm absolutely delighted and would like to thank all those readers around the world who voted for Midnight's Children."

The novel initially won the Booker Prize, considered one of the most prestigious English-language fiction awards in the world, in 1981. It won again in 1993 when organizers of the U.K. literary honour held a competition called the Booker of Bookers to celebrate its 25th anniversary.

The most recent reader-voted contest was held to celebrate the prize's 40th anniversary.