LONDON A first novel by a little known Scottish writer won Whitbread Book of the Year award yesterday heating the favourite, Salman Rushdie, to one of Britain's most prestigious literary prizes.
Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum "was chosen after passionate debate by the final judging panel," the Whitbread committee said in a news release. The Moor's Last Sigh, by Salman Rushdie, the British writer under an Iranian fatwa, or death sentence, over an earlier novel, had been the bookmakers' clear favourite to win the £21,000 prize.
Rushdie's novel, his first since The Satanic Verses which was ruled blasphemous by Iranian leaders, was awarded the less prestigious Whitbread Novel Prize earlier this month.
Behind the Scenes at the Museum is a tragic comedy about a working class family in the ancient cathedral city of York, where Atkinson was born. Atkinson (45), lives with her two daughters in Edinburgh. She expects to publish her second novel this year.
"It's hard to believe this is a first novel. Kate Atkinson writes with confidence and on a grand scale," said Ms Frances Edmonds, one of the Whitbread, judges.