Ellen Feldman bookies favourite to win the Orange Prize for Fiction 2009

With the fourteenth Orange Prize for Fiction only five days away, the latest odds from bookmakers William Hill have American author Ellen Feldman as odds-on favourite with her third book, Scottsboro at 2/1. This is the first time Feldman has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Second favourite is British writer Samantha Harvey, for her debut novel, The Wilderness, at 3/1, followed by American author, Marilynne Robinson, for Home at 7/2.

The odds are:

Ellen Feldman, Scottsboro 2/1 Samantha Harvey, The Wilderness 3/1 Marilynne Robinson, Home 7/2 Deirdre Madden, Molly Fox’s Birthday 4/1 Samantha Hunt, The Invention of Everything Else 6/1 Kamila Shamsie, Burnt Shadows 7/1

The Orange Prize for Fiction was set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote fiction by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible. The Orange Prize is awarded to the best novel of the year written in English by a woman.

The winner of the fourteenth Orange Prize for Fiction will be presented with a cheque for £30,000 and a limited edition bronze statue known as ‘the Bessie’, created by artist Grizel Niven. Both are anonymously endowed.

The award ceremony will take place on 3 June 2009 in The Clore Ballroom of the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London.

www.orangeprize.co.uk

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