Who will win The Man Booker Prize?

Tonight’s the night that the judges announce the winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize. At the last minute, Richard Flanagan has taken over from Neil Mukherjee as favourite:

• 5/2 Richard Flanagan – The Narrow Road To The Deep North
• 3/1 Neil Mukherjee – The Lives Of Others
• 3/1 Ali Smith – How to be both
• 4/1 Howard Jacobson – J
• 8/1 Karen Jay Fowler – We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
• 8/1 Joshua Ferris – To Rise Again At A Decent Hour

Some shrewd literary punters backed Flanagan at 16/1 when the long list was announced, so that is the one book that Ladbrokes would prefer not to win. Here is how the number of bets placed on each of the short listed candidates has broken down:

It’s worth pointing out that favourites do not have a particularly good record in this event; only two of the last 10 have gone on to win.

We’ll try to keep the betting open for as long as possible until before the announcement. For a good summary of the contenders, check out the bookvibe blog.