'Jewish Jane Austen' Wins Booker Prize

The writer who once called the Man Booker Prize an "absolute abomination" was last night awarded the prize for his 11th novel, The Finkler Question. Howard Jacobson, who calls himself "the Jewish Jane Austen," was “truly flabbergasted” by the honor, reports the Telegraph. “I was beginning to look like I was the novelist that never, ever won the Booker Prize,” he says. "I’ve been around for nearly 30 years, but at least they’re discovering me."

Ironically, the book tells the story of a writer "enjoying no success whatsoever," Jacobson says. It is, according to the Telegraph, a comic novel, but also "a meditation on identity, friendship, and loss." The chairman of the judging panel called The Finkler Question "profound," "wise" and "very entertaining." (Click here to read about a past winner, White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.)