2004 Man Booker Prize Winner

The Line of Beauty
General Information
	The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst Published by Picador UK Publication Date: 4/16/04 On Tuesday October 19th, 2004 at the Royal Horticultural Hall in London, the judges announced that Alan Hollinghurst was the winner of the 2004 Man Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty. The chair of the judges, the Rt. Hon. Chris Smith MP, declared: “This was an incredibly difficult and close decision. It has resulted in a winning novel that is exciting, brilliantly written and gets deep under the skin of the Thatcherite 80s. The search for love, sex and beauty is rarely this exquisitely done.” The Line of Beauty was a bit of a surprise winner, edging past the critical favourite and bookie's pick Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Hollinghurst won a £50,000 award, as well as worldwide recognition, acclaim, and prestige. You can expect the sales of this novel to soar! The novel is selling briskly on eBay, with UK signed first editions going for between $70 and $100, and signed US first editions hovering around $75. Mr. Hollinghurst was previously shortlisted for the Booker in 1994 for The Folding Star, and has achieved the honor of writing the first novel with a gay protagonist to win a major literary prize. Read the Man Booker Prize Official Press Announcement.
About the Author
	Alan Hollinghurst was born in May 1954 in Gloucestershire. He studied and then taught English at Oxford. His previous novels are The Swimming-Pool Library (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award), The Folding Star (shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1994 and winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize) and The Spell. For several years he was the Deputy Editor of the Times Literary Supplement and was one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists in 1993. Alan Hollinghurst lives in London.
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See the TurboBookSnob's 2004 Winner Prediction.