So Mark Haddon wins the Whitbread Prize for The Curious Incidence Of The Dog In the Night. Deserved? I think so. In a year where publishing sensations seem to pop out of the woodwork every couple of months, this is the one whichI was actually moved to read. Because of its theme (a boy with Aspergers Syndrome), and the relentless good humour in which the book is presented. Its also the book I have given as a gift the most over the last year, and as one of the recipients was chuffed. Mainly because it contains a tangental maths problem which the book nevertheless feels good enough to put an answer to in the back.
Maybe we were waiting for a day when a book with a solutions page would win a prize, but this one is a good’un. Maybe the Whitbread is not as highly thought of as the Booker, but then the chairman Carey was mighty pissed off when the rest of the panel would not let him short-list The Curious Incidence…