Canada’s Atwood Wins British Literary Prize

Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, three times the bridesmaid and finally the bride, Tuesday won Britain’s coveted Booker Prize on the fourth try with her sweeping 1930s saga, “The Blind Assassin.”

“It is a very great honor and deeply gratifying,” said Atwood, now virtually assured a place on bestseller lists around the world.

The Toronto novelist was quick to pay an amusing tribute to British bookmakers for turning the Booker contest into a literary horse race that has helped popularize reading and made the award front-page news.

“This prize really took off when some genius put together the three words ‘Booker,’ ‘book’ and ‘bookie.’ I think there is something deeply whimsical and appealing that the bookies all get together and read all the books,” Atwood said.

The bookmakers had certainly put their reading to good use: Atwood was an 11-8 favorite to land the prize. She had been short-listed for the prize three times.

She faced competition from such well-known writers as Kazuo Ishiguro for “When We Were Orphans” and Michael Collins for “The Keepers of Truth.” Her novel was picked from 120 submissions and a short list of six works.

Atwood appeared determined not to let the fame go to her head after landing the $29,980 prize.

“When you go to heaven and you arrive at the Pearly Gates and St. Peter asks you what you have done on Earth, he is going to be actually interested in how well you have written and not in how many things you have got on the mantelpiece,” she said.

“I think [the prize] will make a big contribution to the appreciation of Canadian literature internationally,” said an elated Ellen Seligman, editor of Atwood’s book, the author’s 10th novel, at the venerable Canadian publisher McClelland & Stewart.

Apart from such major novelists as Michael Ondaatje and Mordecai Richler, Canadian literature has long struggled to receive recognition abroad.