Julian Barnes finally wins the 2011 Man Booker Prize for his manuscript ‘The Sense of an Ending’

Julian Barnes finally wins the 2011 Man Booker Prize for his manuscript ‘The Sense of an Ending’

The contemporary British Author Julian Barnes finally wins this year’s Man Booker Prize after being shortlisted for the honour three times before in his life.

On Tuesday, the ceremony took place in London for announcing the winner of the 2011 Man Booker prize which is one of the most prestigious awards in English Language Literature. Among the nominations, Julian Barnes’ book “The Sense of an Ending” turned out to be the best manuscript which is a slim and meditative story of frustration, regret and morality.

Stella Rimington, the ex-chief of British intelligence who was the chairwomen of the judging panel, said after nominating Barnes for the Man Booker Prize.

“It is a very readable book, if I may use that word, but readable not only once but twice and even three times. It is incredibly concentrated. Crammed into this short space is a great deal of information which you don’t get out of a first read.”

The book Sense of an ending is a 150 page novella which narrates the life of a middle-aged man as he remembers the days when he was young. The story relates to most of the people around the world who recalls their past due to frustration, regret or some important moment of their lives.

Upon accepting the 2011 Man Booker Prize which also included 82 thousand dollar check, the 65-year-old Julian Barnes thanked his publisher for their wisdom and said that he is as much relieved as he is delighted to win the prize after failing to do so in 1984, 1998 and 2005. While standing at the podium and sharing his feeling with the audience, Barnes also offered some advice to the publishers.

“Those of you who have seen my book, whatever you think of its contents, will probably agree it is a beautiful object. And if the physical book, as we’ve come to call it, is to resist the challenge of the ebook, it has to look like something worth buying, worth keeping.” Barnes said.

Posted by Sohaib Anwar on Oct 20 2011. Filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry