Booker Prize won by a US writer for second year in a row

GEORGE SAUNDERS has won the Man Booker Prize with Lincoln in the Bardo, the second year in a row that the award has gone to a US author writing about American history.

The Lincoln of the title is Abraham Lincoln, grieving over the death of his son Willie from typhoid fever in 1862. The book intersperses historical accounts, both real and imagined, with monologues from a cast of ghosts watching over the boy in the after-life.

But while the judges praised Saunders for a “unique” piece of work, success for another American author will raise questions about the wisdom of changing the Man Booker rules. Previously, only British and Commonwealth writers were eligible for the prize. But in 2014, many British writers were dismayed when the eligibility rules were changed to include any novel written in English and published in the UK.

Last year, the prize went to Paul Beatty for The Sellout, a satire on US race relations. Half of this year’s shortlist was made of up Americans – Saunders, Paul Auster and Emily Fridlund. Yesterday, Tibor Fischer, the Booker-nominated British writer, said of the shortlist: “I like competition. But shouldn’t there be a level playing field? British writers aren’t eligible for the big American awards.”

He added that “the presence of the Americans is simply making it harder for British talent to flourish or even survive. If the Man Booker cares about British literary fiction, maybe it should have a rethink”.

Baroness Lola Young, the chairman of the judges, said the panel did not take nationality into account. “I can say that, hand on heart. We’re solely concerned with the book and what that book is telling us. Nationality is not an issue,” she said.