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Man Booker is a Chicken Raffle: Richard Flanagan

Richard FlanaganAn Australian author Richard Flanagan won this year’s Man Booker Prize. Although he considers the prize not so precious when he talks about it as ‘CHICKEN RAFFLE’. The Hindu newspaper writes that Richard Flanagan is nothing if not a man of his word. His novel ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’ is a personal one. The newspaper quotes one of his lines which he wrote after it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction “Writing is a journey to humility.”

A few days prior to the prize announcement, Flanagan — who is one of the finest Australian writers of his generation — was caught saying, “In Australia, the Man Booker is seen as something of a chicken raffle.” A couple of days later, he won the raffle, thereby becoming the third Aussie to get the Booker after Thomas Kenneally and Peter Carey, writes the newspaper. 

After he received the Man Booker prize — Flanagan did not forget his words and repeated with a mere addon, “In Australia, the Man Booker Prize is seen as something of a chicken raffle. I just didn’t expect to end up being the chicken.” He revealed that he did not belong to a literary tradition since his grandparents were illiterate. Read more here

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