Here are the bookies’ odds for the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The Nobel Prize in Literature has been . . . fairly chaotic in recent years. First, in 2016, there was Bob Dylan (absurd). Then, there was Kazuo Ishiguro (apologetic). Then, there was no prize (sexual misconduct scandal). Then, a dual prize, to Olga Tokarczuk (back on track?) and Peter Handke (absolutely not back on track, guys). So what can we expect this year? Who the hell knows. It’s 2020.
But we don’t have long to wait. According to the Nobel Prize website, the literature prize will be announced tomorrow morning at 7:00 EST (at the earliest).
For those who want to get your bets in before then (apparently this is something people do) and need a sense of the field, I consulted UK website Nice Odds, which compiles different betting website odds (in this case Ladbrokes and Betsson). As of this writing, here are the bookies’ odds for who will win tomorrow’s big prize:
Maryse Condé – 4/1
Lyudmila Ulitskaya – 5/1
Haruki Murakami – 6/1
Margaret Atwood – 6/1
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o – 8/1
Anne Carson – 10/1
Javier Marías – 10/1
Ko Un – 10/1
Yan Lianke – 12/1
Annie Ernaux – 16/1
Can Xue – 16/1
Cormac McCarthy – 16/1
Don De Lillo – 16/1
Marilynne Robinson – 16/1
Jamaica Kincaid – 20/1
Yu Hua – 20/1
Edna O’Brien – 24/1
Friederike Mayrocker – 24/1
Charles Simic – 25/1
Jon Fosse – 25/1
Louise Glück – 25/1
Scholastique Mukasonga – 25/1
Both Strauss – 29/1
Homero Aridjis – 29/1
William T Vollmann – 29/1
Hilary Mantel – 33/1
Karl Ove Knausgård – 33/1
Linton Kwesi Johnson – 33/1
Michel Houellebecq – 33/1
Milan Kundera – 33/1
Stephen King – 50/1
Richard Osman – 100/1
I, however, have it on pretty good authority that Murakami will not win.
