Howard Jacobson Wins Booker Prize

The Man Booker Prize is given every year to a novel by an author in Britain, Ireland or the Commonwealth nations.

The author of “The Finkler Question,” Howard Jacobson won the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award. The Finkler Question is a witty novel about a friendship between a radio producer and a philosopher and the questions of religion it brings. The Finkler Question became the first unashamedly comic novel to win the Man Booker prize in its 42-year history.

The Booker prize chairman, Sir Andrew Motion, said it was "quite amazing" that this was the first time Jacobson had been shortlisted. But he was not, in any way, being rewarded because it was his turn. "It never came into our minds," he said. "Having said that, there is a particular pleasure in seeing somebody who is that good finally getting his just deserts."

Mr. Jacobson had been long-listed for the Booker Prize twice before, for “Who’s Sorry Now?” in 2002 and “Kalooki Nights” in 2007. Mr. Jacobson accepted the award to unusually loud and sustained applause at an awards ceremony in London on Tuesday night. “I’m speechless,” he said. “Fortunately I prepared one earlier. It’s dated 1983. That’s how long the wait’s been.”

Jacobson wasn't the favorite to win the award. C, by Tom McCarthy, was. The other finalists were In a Strange Room, by Damon Galgut; The Long Song, by Andrea Levy; Room, by Emma Donoghue; and Parrot and Olivier in America, by Peter Carey.