Prize and Prejudice

In: FP, Heft 210

Abstract

Tim Parks, author of Where I'm Reading From, thinks ornate books like Catton's signal the increasingly formulaic highwire act of what he calls 'the dull new global novel.' He critiques the Spanish- Argentine writer Andres Neuman's Traveler of the Century and the Briton William Boyd's Waiting for Sunrise as 'complex literary novels together with the kind of high-tension plot that can attract a wider readership.' Imagine Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice without the provincial protocols of courtship in 19th-century Hertfordshire. The current shift in the novel dovetails with-and may even respond to-another development: Prestigious English-language book prizes, once limited to writers from a handful of countries, are opening up to worldwide competition. In 2013, when the Man Booker announced it would accept non-Commonwealth books, the decision drew fierce criticism. The world's writers and publishers are now invested in that game. While some novelists pander to the broadest possible international readership, however, many great ones still tilt in the other direction. Adapted from the source document.