Many had thought William Trevor had a huge claim on this year's Man Booker prize with his fourth appearance on the shortlist with The Story of Lucy Gault. But the judges opted for Yann Martel's Life of Pi, a subtle and sophisticated fable about belief in its many guises. Eileen Battersby reports.
Surprise rather than shock greeted the result of the Man Booker prize. When the announcement was made last night in London, critics would have to admit to being pleased at the honouring of a very good book by Yann Martel, Life of Pi.
But at the same time this was a Booker that seemed destined to be fought out between Ireland's William Trevor and the Canadian-based Indian novelist Rohinton Mistry.
Trevor had initially emerged as the bookie's favourite. There was strong support for him. The Booker is one of the few major literary prizes the Cork-born novelist and short story writer has not yet won.
However, despite the commitment to Trevor and Mistry, few commentators had overlooked the originality and appeal of Life of Pi. It is a subtle and sophisticated fable about belief in its many guises.
First published in Canada where the Spanish-born, Montreal-based Martel now lives, the UK edition is published by one of Britain's most interesting publishers, Canongate in Edinburgh.
It is one boy's story shaped by adventure and allegory with echoes of works as diverse in literary tradition as Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick and the Old Man and the Sea.
Our hero is Pi, the youngest son of an Indian zoo-owner.
When Mrs Gandhi came to power, the boy's father feared what could come next. So he decides to sell off some of the animals and then take the others off to a new life in Canada. It sounds exciting, the definitive adventure. But the plans go astray.
Shipwrecked, Pi becomes an orphan and a castaway, alone on the sea.
Except that he is not quite alone; some animals survive, including a hyena, a wounded zebra and an orang-utan - in themselves, though, not that bad, considering that also sharing the lifeboat is a Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
The tiger represents menace. It is also an extraordinary characterisation.
The beast features as extremely important to the story, and of course in its capacity as the major threat it also ensures that Pi is determined to survive. The narrative develops into a battle of wills.
Once the other animals are finished off, the tiger sets about its daily routine. This consists of fretting, hiding in a corner and battling for food which can come from only one source - the boy.
Part psychological warfare, part terror story, Pi's ordeal develops into an incredible account.
His gentle, insistent narrative voice is compelling. It is an atmospheric work. Martel evokes the heat, the smells, the giddy fear, the immensity of the sea itself and the desperate diet that somehow sustained the boy, his courage and his battle with the tiger.
Tension is sustained throughout. Most successful of all is the description of the boy's complicated terror, and gradual need of the tiger.
This is a beautiful work of allegorical fiction. Everyone who reads it will be captivated.
However, many commentators and readers will argue that the sheer daring and wit shown by the panel in shortlisting this work was sufficient.
Without seeming partisan, William Trevor had a huge claim to this prize this year in his fourth appearance on a Booker shortlist.
The Story of Lucy Gault is an event in itself as Trevor took familiar territory, that of the Big House, and created a new variation on the theme.
Mistry, whose third novel, Family Matters, represented his third Booker shortlisting, always looked a strong contender with a moving domestic saga that is a masterpiece in itself.
Still, in the absence of a Trevor win, or of a victory for Mistry, the panel did well with a fresh novel that certainly had the lowest profile on the shortlist.
It is worth pointing out that Martel also finished ahead of a fine novel by another Canadian-based writer, Carol Shields, herself a former Booker runner-up. Her novel, Unless, could well be her best book.
Fears that Sarah Waters, currently in the news for the television adaptation of another book, would snatch the prize with the seriously unconvincing, peculiarly modern toned, pseudo-Victorian romp, Fingersmith, were luckily unwarranted.
The Australian writer Tim Winton, shortlisted for a popular novel called Dirt Music about 40-somethings trying to make sense of life and love, never featured.
It was a great chance for William Trevor, but readers will enjoy and remember Life of Pi.