« King George and the Duke of Marmalade | Home | Miliband “to be Gordon Brown’s Brutus”, says bookmaker »

Joseph O’Neill early favourite for 2008 Booker

By Matt | July 29, 2008

Betting odds for the 2008 Man Booker Prize have been drawn up following the announcement of the book award’s long list, and William Hill have made Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland their 3/1 favourite.

Netherland, with its story about oil investors and cricket in post-9/11 New York, pips Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence to favouritism. Rushdie’s novel is a 4/1 shot.

Tom Rob Smith’s Child 44 is 6/1 third-favourite. Smith’s thriller was a heavy favourite to win the Desmond Elliott book award earlier this year, although that gong that subsequently went to Nikita Lalwani for Gifted.

The rest of the card reads:

8/1 Sebastian Barry - The Secret Scripture
8/1 Linda Grant - The Clothes on Their Backs
10/1 Mohammed Hanif - A Case of Exploding Mangoes
10/1 Amite Gosh - Sea of Poppies
14/1 Arvin Amiga - The White Tiger
14/1 Michelle de Kreutzer - The Lost Dog
16/1 John Berger - From A to X
16/1 Steve Toltz - A Fraction of the Whole
20/1 Gaynor Arnold - Girl in a Blue Dress

Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe said, “Although Salman Rushdie is the man in form having won the Booker of Bookers, that book is now over 20 years old and his recent work has not been winning literary awards.

“Joseph O’Neill’s novel Netherland has been creating a real buzz and is also being suggested as the first novel to become a serious contender for the “Bookie Prize” – the William Hill Sports Book of the Year – and for that reason we believe it is a worthy favourite.”

Topics: Books and literature