William Hill backs The Goldfinch to win Baileys Prize

Sarah Shaffi - The Bookseller Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch (Little, Brown) has been named by bookmaker William Hill as favourite to win the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2014. Odds have been put at 2/1 on the American writer’s third novel winning the £30,000 award. Second favourite is Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Fourth Estate), with odds of 3/1. Adichie won the prize, then called the Orange Prize for Fiction, in 2007 for Half of a Yellow Sun (Harper Perennial). Australian author Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites (Picador) and Irish writer Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing (Galley Beggar Press/Faber & Faber), are joint third favourites at odds of 5/1. In joint fourth place at 6/1 are British/American author Jhumpa Lahiri for The Lowland (Bloomsbury) and debut Irish writer Audrey Magee for The Undertaking (Atlantic Books). The winner of the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2014 will be announced at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 4th June. The judging panel is chaired by Helen Fraser, and also includes Mary Beard, Denise Mina, Caitlin Moran and Sophie Raworth.