Martel still in shock, says thought only geniuses won

An exhausted but euphoric Yann Martel, winner of the 2002 Booker prize for Life of Pi is still recovering from the shock of taking home Tues...

An exhausted but euphoric Yann Martel, winner of the 2002 Booker prize for Life of Pi is still recovering from the shock of taking home Tuesday night’s award.

Despite the heaping praise garnered by the novel — about a boy trapped on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger — Martel thought, for a fleeting moment, that perhaps the judges had made a mistake.

‘‘It is quite unbelievable. I keep thinking, ‘Oh, I won the Booker prize,’ which until now always seemed like a stratospheric award that always went to true geniuses. Now that I’ve won it, it seems kind of bizarre, like maybe something went wrong,’’ he said on Wednesday.

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‘‘The second it was announced, there was about a second and a half of shock and disbelief and then I and my whole table jumped up screaming. It was sheer joy,’’ Martel recalled.

Despite being skyrocketed into the international literary stratosphere with his Booker prize, Martel takes his win in stride.

‘‘It really is a lottery. I emphasised in my speech last night that it was definitely the luckiest book, not necessarily the best book. I was lucky to have a jury that liked my kind of book and gave me this amazing award,’’ he said, adding that prizes of this nature are inherently unfair since they reflect the idiosyncratic tastes of the judges.

‘‘There is something inherently social about art, so I’m very happy that my book is read. I don’t really care if it sells,’’ Martel said, adding that he is not overly concerned with the financial rewards. (Reuters)