The big deal about the Booker

I ignored most of this year’s hype about the Man Booker. Only two names stuck in my head. One was Kiran Desai (‘It’s been some time since she wrote a book,’ I thought). The other was Sarah Waters. (Don’t ask me why, but the name just stuck.) Then I remember vaguely reading about some bellyaching about Peter Carey and David Mitchell not being on the list, and how they were streets ahead of all those who were, and so on. In short, it was the silly season all over again.

Then, why was I so excited when I read news this morning that Kiran Desai had won the Booker for the her latest novel The Inheritance of Loss? A familiar name with dynastic connections, perhaps? Because she is Indian? Asian? I don’t know. I guess that is the magic of the Booker. Love it or hate it, it has a way of grabbing your attention. And, the best part, it gets people interested in books all over again. It has given books and reading a certain sexiness, a certain cool, and glamour – something the stodgy Pulitzer has, somehow, never managed to do. Go figure.

Oh, this one is for the fans of trivia. Kiran Desai at 35 is the youngest woman to win the Booker. The previous youngest woman was Arundhati Roy for The God of Small Things a month short of her 37th birthday in 1997. The youngest person to win the Booker is Ben Okri in 1991 at 32.