LONDON: Michael Ondaatje’s “The English Patient” was named the greatest-ever winner of the Man Booker Prize at an event Sunday celebrating five decades of the prestigious literary award.
The Canadian writer’s tale of love and conflict during World War II was awarded the Golden Man Booker Prize for fiction after winning a public vote.
“The English Patient” won the Booker in 1992 and was made into a 1996 movie starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche that won nine Academy Awards.
It beat four other novels in an online poll that drew 9,000 votes in all. Organizers didn’t give a breakdown of votes for the books, each of which represented one of five decades.
A panel of judges selected five books from among the 51 winners of the Booker, a prize that has boosted the careers of writers such as Ian McEwan, Arundhati Roy and Kazuo Ishiguro.
The 1970s finalist was “In a Free State” by Trinidad-born V.S. Naipaul, while “Moon Tiger” by British writer Penelope Lively was the 1980s contender. Hilary Mantel’s Tudor saga “Wolf Hall” and George Saunders’ US Civil War symphony “Lincoln in the Bardo” were the finalists from the 2000s and 2010s.
Ondaatje said he did not believe “for a second” that his book was the best. He paid tribute to the late “The English Patient” film director, Anthony Minghella, “who I suspect had something to do with the result of this vote.”
Novelist Kamila Shamsie, one of the judges, said Ondaatje’s book combined “extraordinary” language, a plot tinged with mystery and compelling characters, including a Canadian nurse, an Indian bomb-disposal expert, a thief-turned-spy and an aristocratic Hungarian archaeologist.
Shamsie said Ondaatje’s novel, published at a time when “borders seemed much more assured,” had a different resonance in the current climate, amid “anxieties about borders and anxiety about migrants and other people.”
“We’ve all read lots of books about the Second World War. We think of it, with good reason, as the good war,” she said.
“And I think it is really brave and remarkable the way he goes into that story and says war is trauma, and war is about separating people by nations when there are so many other reasons for them to be together,” she added.
Founded in 1969, the Man Booker prize was originally open to British, Irish and Commonwealth writers, but eligibility was expanded in 2014 to all English-language novelists.
‘The English Patient’ voted best Man Booker Prize winner
‘The English Patient’ voted best Man Booker Prize winner
- “The English Patient” won the Booker in 1992 and was made into a 1996 movie starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche that won nine Academy Awards
- Founded in 1969, the Man Booker prize was originally open to British, Irish and Commonwealth writers, but eligibility was expanded in 2014 to all English-language novelists
Makkah museum displays world’s largest Qur’an
MAKKAH: The Holy Qur’an Museum at the Hira Cultural District in Makkah is showcasing a monumental handwritten copy of the Holy Qur’an, recognized as the largest Qur’an of its kind in the world.
The manuscript measures 312 cm by 220 cm and comprises 700 pages, earning the museum recognition from Guinness World Records for displaying the world’s largest Qur’an, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The manuscript is a magnified reproduction of a historic Qur’an dating back to the 16th century, the SPA stated.
The original copy measures 45 cm by 30 cm, with the chapters written primarily in Thuluth script, while Surah Al-Fatiha was penned in Naskh, reflecting the refined artistic choices and calligraphic diversity of the era.
The Qur’an is a unique example of Arabic calligraphy, gilding and bookbinding, showcasing Islamic art through intricate decorations, sun-shaped motifs on the opening folio, and elaborately designed frontispiece and title pages that reflect a high level of artistic mastery.
The manuscript was endowed as a waqf in 1883. Its original version is currently preserved at the King Abdulaziz Complex for Endowment Libraries, serving as a lasting testament to Muslims’ enduring reverence for the Qur’an and the richness of Islamic arts across the centuries.
