The Australian winner of this year's Man Booker prize has echoed the concerns of his compatriot Peter Carey about the fate of literature from "smaller cultures" in the wake of the decision to allow American novels to compete for the prize.
Richard Flanagan's novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North was the first winner of the prize under the new rules. Flanagan's book about the wartime experience of prisoners and their captors on the Burma railway was chosen ahead of five other five other shortlisted writers, including two Americans, Joshua Ferris and Karen Joy Fowler.
Interviewed after wining the £50,000 prize, Flanagan expressed qualified backing for criticism of the decision to open up the prize to Americans by fellow Australian Booker winner Peter Carey.
