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18th May 2008

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Life of Pi is best of Booker, says Abe Books

07.05.08 Anna Richardson

Yann Martel's Life of Pi is the favourite Booker Prize winner of all time, according to a survey conducted by Abe Books ahead of this year's official Best of the Booker award.

AbeBooks.co.uk asked 727 of its customers to name the best of the past winners and Martel’s novel – the Man Booker winner in 2002 – finished ahead of Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie with Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things in third place.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro and Disgrace by J M Coetzee were also among the top ten, while Holiday by Stanley Middleton was the only book to receive no votes.

A judging panel will announce an official shortlist for the Best of the Booker next week, followed by a public vote to decide the overall, to be announced in July.

Abe Books also compiled a list of the most expensive Booker Prize-winning novels sold through its sites, with a signed first edition of Rushdie's Midnight's Children the most expensive at £1,500.


AbeBooks.co.uk Best of the Booker poll

1) Life of Pi by Yann Martel (12.4%)
2) Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (10.5%)
3) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (8.8%)
4) The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (8.5%)
5) The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (6.9%)
6) The Bone People by Keri Hulme (5.5%)
7) Possession by AS Byatt (5.4%)
8) The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (5.2%)
9) Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee (4%)
10) The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (3.3%)

Most Expensive “Booker Prize-winning” books sold through AbeBooks

1. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (£1500) - Signed first edition.
2. In A Free State by V.S. Naipaul (£1280) - First edition, inscribed by the author
3. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (£900) - First Indian edition of 1997 winner
4. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (£600) - Signed first Canadian edition, one of only 2500 copies, of 2002 winner
5. Life & Times of Michael K and Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee (£575) - Coetzee’s two winning novels (1983 and 1999 respectively) sold together, both signed first editions.
6. The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens (£318) - First edition of 1970 winner
7. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje - (£312) Signed first UK edition of 1992 winner
8. Possession by AS Byatt - (£250) - Signed first edition of 1990 winner.
9. The Gathering by Anne Enright (£250) - Signed first edition of last year’s winner
10. Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally (£250) - Signed first edition in olive clamshell box of 1982 winner

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