Rushdie wins 'Best of Booker' award

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Twenty seven years after it was published, Indian-born author Salman Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children' today won the coveted 'Best of the Booker' award.

Having already won the Booker Prize in 1981, 'Midnight's Children', again in 1993 showed its continuing popularity when a celebratory award 'Booker of Booker' was created for the prize's 25th anniversary and Rushdie won it.

When voting closed at midday on July 8, 7801 people had voted (via the net and SMS) for the six shortlisted authors for the 'Best of the Booker' prize title with 36 per cent voting for 'Midnight's Children'.

Votes came in from all across the globe with 37 per cent of online votes coming from Britain followed closely by 27 per cent from North America.

At least half of the voters were under 35 years of age with the largest age group ranging between 25-34 years -- a clear reflection of the interest in 'Midnight's Children' over generations.

Although Rushdie was not able to attend the award ceremony at the Southbank Centre to receive the custom-made trophy, his sons Zafar and Milan were in attendance.

Rushdie, who is currently on tour in the US to promote his latest novel 'The Enchantress of Florence', sent his thanks via a pre-recorded message, saying, ''Marvellous news! I'm absolutely delighted and would like to thank all those readers around the world who voted for 'Midnight's Children'.''

British writer Victoria Glendinning declared, ''The readers have spoken -- in thousands. And we do believe that they have made the right choice.'' The five other authors in the shortlist for the prestigious award included Nobel Prize winners J M Coetzee ('Disgrace') and Nadine Gordimer ('The Conservationist'). The others in the list were Pat Barker ('The Ghost Road'), Peter Carey ('Oscar and Lucinda') and J G Farrell ('The Siege of Krishnapur').

'Midnight's Children', an example of Rushdie's magical realist style, is the story of Saleem Sinai who is born on the stroke of midnight on the day of India's independence in 1947 and whose life loosely parallels the fortunes of his nascent country.

The Booker rewards the best novel each year by a writer from Britain, Ireland or a Commonwealth country.