Man Booker Prize - Who dares wins

Sometimes it pays to take chances, experiment and venture outside traditional comfort zones. 

Doing so has helped writer George Saunders win the Man Booker Prize for his surreal, experimental first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo.

It marks the second year in a row that the prize has gone to an American author. Last year, Paul Beatty received the prize for The Sellout, a dark satire about the legacy of slavery in America.

At a news conference in London yesterday, Lola Young, the chair of judges, said Mr Saunders’ novel was “unique” and “stood out because of its innovation”. Until recently, the Man Booker, which was first awarded in 1969, was restricted to novels written by authors from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth nations. In 2014, it was opened to any novel written in English and published in Britain.

This has drawn criticism from traditionalists who fret that the Booker is being “colonised” by American writers.

Conflict, transatlantic relations, and innovation versus tradition — there’s probably a book in that.