The Bookseller.com

20th November 2008

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Nobel speculation begins

02.10.08

Perennial favorites, from American novelist Philip Roth to Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, top the list of hopefuls for this year's Nobel Prize in literature, according to the Reuters news service.

British betting agency Ladbrokes gives Italian scholar and journalist Claudio Magris the edge with 3-1 odds, followed by Israel's Amos Oz and American author Joyce Carol Oates. Bottom of the Ladbrokes list with odds of 150-1 is singer-lyricist Bob Dylan.

But such secrecy shrouds the Nobel committee's deliberations over literature's most illustrious yearly prize that even the date of the award is kept hush-hush until news of a winner is close at hand.

Reuters

Media Prize Nobel Prize in Literature