Look down the list of Booker prize winners and you find a galaxy of literary stars, from William Golding to Michael Ondaatje and from Iris Murdoch to Margaret Atwood. But does a Booker prize give a novel a divine right to stay in print?
It's "self-evidently absurd" says John Crace, maintaining that "the Booker can't turn an average book into a masterpiece or guarantee longevity". But Nic Bottomley disagrees, arguing that "a good bookseller can make valuable use of the Booker 'label' to help sell backlist titles by winning or nominated authors".
But what do you think? Are you willing to take a punt on an author you haven't tried before just because it's got a Booker prize sticker on it? Can you judge literary merit by committee?
