Five things to know about the Booker Prize

London (AFP)

The Booker Prize, the British equivalent of the Goncourt for 50 years, is among the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and is a promise of accelerator sales for the winners.

Here are five things to know before the award ceremony on October 14:

- History of names -

The literary prize was created in 1969 with funding from the largest English food wholesaler, Booker.

British publishers, eager to find an English equivalent to the venerable Goncourt Prize, have asked Jock Campbell, president of Booker and literary fan, to sponsor the project.

The prize was renamed "Man Booker Prize" in 2002 when the hedge fund Man Group became a financial sponsor in turn.

He regained his former name in 2019 when he passed into the hands of the American Crankstart charitable foundation, founded by billionaires from Silicon Valley.

- Glory and fortune -

The award recognizes a novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland.

The winner, whose name is unveiled each October in London, wins 50,000 pounds (about 57,200 euros). Each finalist also pockets 2,500 pounds (about 2,860 euros).

These sums are far from that of the Nobel Prize for Literature with 844,000 euros, but are among the most generous endowments among literary awards, like the Pulitzer Prize (nearly 13,600 euros) or the National Book Award in the United States. United (about 59,000 euros).

In France, the price Goncourt offers only ten euros symbolic to the winner, but is accompanied by the promise of record sales.

The winner of the Booker, too, "is assured of international recognition and a sharp increase in sales," according to the site of the English award.

- How it works ? -

For each edition a Booker committee composes a panel of about five jurors, most often personalities from the literary world - writers, critics and editors.

They have several months to read the many books in the running, and then pre-select a dozen. From this selection emerging finalists, then a single laureate is named.

- Awarded translations -

In 2016, a parallel prize was created to reward fiction translated into English and published here again in the United Kingdom or Ireland.

The author and translator of the award-winning novel share the endowment of 50,000 books of the international Booker Prize, unveiled annually in May.

French writer Annie Ernaux was part of the final selection in 2019 for "The Years", translated by Alison Strayer.

- Controversies -

Reserved for British, Irish, Zimbabwean, and Commonwealth writers, the Booker Prize opened to American writers in 2014, sparking fierce controversy in the UK over the original purpose of the award.

The two-time winner Peter Carey denounced in 2017 a prize only funded by Man Group to improve its brand image.

The selection of the contenders has been criticized as arbitrary, the jury has sometimes agitated and the choice of the laureate, sometimes openly repudiated by a juror, is controversial.

The winners are not always thrilled either: in his 1972 thank you speech, winner John Berger lamented the "hateful" competitive spirit surrounding the award.

The committed writer donated half of the money earned through his award to the Black Panthers' African-American revolutionary movement to denounce the exploitation of the Caribbean by commercial corporations, including the financial sponsor of the Booker Prize.

© 2019 AFP