Outsider beats favourites to win Man Booker prize

Outsider's 'weepie' scoops Man Booker Prize

RANK OUTSIDER ANNE Enright has won the Man Booker Prize, beating off competition from favourites Ian McEwan and Lloyd Jones.

Enright's novel, The Gathering, about dysfunctional family life set in Ireland scooped the prize for being 'powerful, uncomfortable and even at times angry' and won the author a total of £52,000.

Howard Davies, chair of the panel, described it as 'an unflinching look at a grieving family in tough and striking language'.

Perhaps not to go to the top of your holiday reading list, the Observer said Enright's work was 'made distinctive by an exhilarating bleakness of tone'.

And reiterating this, the author herself spoke on Radio 4's programme this morning saying: 'When people pick up a book they may want something happy that will cheer them up. In that case they shouldn't really pick up my book. It's the intellectual equivalent of a Hollywood weepie.'

Despite being pipped to the post, Ian McEwan can feel safe in the knowledge that his novel On Chesil Beach is still flying off the shelves, far outselling the other books on the shortlist combined.