Which author won the 2010 Booker Prize for 'The Finkler Question'?

Howard Jacobson won the 2010 Booker Prize for his novel The Finkler Question.

The book is a comic novel about friendship, identity and antisemitism. Its central character, Julian Treslove, is a somewhat directionless former BBC radio producer whose closest friends include Sam Finkler, a famous Jewish philosopher and television personality, and Libor Sevcik, an elderly Czech Jewish scholar.

Jacobson’s novel explores Jewish identity in contemporary Britain through irony and uncomfortable social situations. The title comes from Treslove’s habit of treating “Finkler” as if it were a general term for Jewish people, reflecting both his ignorance and the book’s interest in how outsiders construct identities for others.

The award was notable because Jacobson was best known primarily for comic fiction, a form sometimes treated as less serious by literary prize culture. The Finkler Question was the first of his novels to win the Booker Prize. Jacobson reportedly joked in his acceptance speech that he would spend the £50,000 prize money on a handbag for his wife.