Awarded the Buker Prize

The winner of the 2014 Buker Prize was the Australian writer Richard Flenagan. He was awarded for the novel "The Narrow Road to the Far North" (The Narrow Road to the Deep North).

According to TASS , the award ceremony took place in London on Tuesday evening, October 14. Flanagan received a check of 50 thousand pounds ($ 80 thousand), the remaining five finalists of the buker received 2500 pounds each ($ 4000).

The book “The narrow road to the Far North” takes place during the Second World War in the Japanese camp for prisoners of war of the Allies, who built the railway between Burma and Thailand, known as the “Death Road”. The author’s father was a prisoner of this camp. It took almost 12 years to write a novel by Flenagan.

The jury member Anthony Clifford Greiling called the book "A wonderful love story, as well as a story about human suffering and partnership." According to him, it took specialists about three hours to come to a single decision regarding the winner.

In 2014, works dedicated to a mainly modern era were included in the short list , unlike previous years, when historical novels were widely represented among applicants for the Buker prize.

Earlier, only English -language writers from the UK, Ireland and the countries of the Commonwealth could receive the British Buker prize. This year, authors from any country writing in English were allowed to participate in the competition.

Last year, the Boker was received by the New Zealand writer Eleanor Katton for the novel “The Luminaries” ( The Luminaries ).