Hilary Mantel Wins Booker

Hilary Mantel has won the 2012 Man Booker Prize for her historical novel Bring Up the Bodies, becoming the third writer ever to win the award twice. She’s also the first to win with a sequel, after her book Wolf Hall won the Booker in 2009. “You wait 20 years for a Booker Prize, and two come along at once!” Mantel said. The five other books on the shortlist were: The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng, Swimming Home by Deborah Levy, The Lighthouse by Alison Moore, Umbrella by Will Self, and Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil. Last year’s winner was Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending. The Booker is the premier literary award for the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, and Zimbabwe.