"Letting Americans compete for Booker prize is straightforwardly daft"

Award-winning novelist, Julian Barnes, has criticized letting Americans authors compete for Booker prize as “straightforwardly daft”.

The 2011 Man Booker Prize winner for his book The Sense of an Ending, revealed he was firmly against opening up the UK’s premier literary prize to American writers introduced in 2014.

“I don’t agree with opening up the Booker for the Americans,” he told the Radio Times. “I think that’s straightforwardly daft. The Americans have got enough prizes of their own.

“The idea of [the Booker] being Britain, Ireland, the old Commonwealth countries and new voices in English from around the world gave it a particular character and meant it could bring on writers. If you also include Americans – and get a couple of heavy hitters – then the unknown Canadian novelist hasn’t got a chance.”

He asked: “Which American prizes are open to Brits? In theory, I think only the National Book Award is. I don’t think any Brit has won a major American award for years.”

The 70-year-old was something of a Booker bridesmaid until winning in 2011. Before that he had been shortlisted three times, for Flaubert’s Parrot (1984), England, England (1998) and Arthur & George (2005). Guardian UK reported.

The prize was established in 1969 and has become the UK’s most coveted literary prize. This year Paul Beatty became the first US author to win for his satire of American racial politics, The Sellout.

In 2015, Nigeria's Chigozie Obioma was shortlisted for the award, however, Jamaican novelist Marlon James took home the prize for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings about the attempted assassination of Bob Marley.

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