Thursday, September 05, 2013

Jim Crace is Booker favourite as judges prepare to unveil shortlist

Bookmakers refine their offers and speculation mounts before list of authors in contention for Booker prize is cut from 13 to six

Jim Crace novelistJim Crace: will he receive 'long overdue' recognition? Photograph: Eamonn Mccabe for the Guardian

With less than a week to go until the Man Booker Prize shortlist 2013 is unveiled, the bookies' favourite is Harvest by Jim Crace.
At 11/4 from William Hill, or 5/2 at Ladbrokes, Crace is tipped to scoop the prize, echoing Philip Hensher's prediction in the Spectator that he "can hardly see where else the prize can go than to the long-overdue Crace".

Indeed, the bookies' top five favourites mostly reflect Hensher's predictions – he urges a shortlist comprising Crace, with TransAtlantic by Colum McCann, The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín, Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson , The Kills by Richard House and Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries.
Catton's historical novel about the 19th-century New Zealand gold rush is second-favourite with the bookies, at 4/1 with Ladbrokes and 5/1 with William Hill. In both bookmakers' top fives – suggesting that they are also favourites to make the shortlist – are The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan (6/1 Ladbrokes and 7/1 William Hill), and Tóibín's The Testament of Mary (8/1 Ladbrokes and 7/1 William Hill).


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Ladbrokes

Harvest by Jim Crace 5/2
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton 4/1
The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan 6/1
Unexploded by Alison MacLeod 7/1
The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín 8/1
The Kills by Richard House 8/1
TransAtlantic by Colum McCann 8/1
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki 8/1
Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson 10/1
Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw 10/1
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo 10/1
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri 10/1
The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris 12/1

William Hill

Harvest by Jim Crace 11/4
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton 5/1
The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín 7/1
The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan 7/1
TransAtlantic by Colum McCann 8/1
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri 8/1
Unexploded by Alison MacLeod 10/1
Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson 10/1
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo 10/1
Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw 10/1
The Kills by Richard House 12/1
The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris 14/1
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki 14/1

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