American novelist Philip Roth was declared the winner of the 2011 Man Booker International Prize yesterday in a ceremony at the Sydney Opera House. The biennial $90,000 award, announced in Australia for the first time as part of the Sydney Writers’ Festival, honours an author’s overall contribution to literature and this year included the Australian David Malouf as one of thirteen finalists.

Chair of the judging panel Dr Rick Gekoski was full of praise for the 78-year-old Roth, who has penned more than thirty books and received a Pulitzer Prize for his 1998 novel American Pastoral.

“His imagination has not only recast our idea of Jewish identity; it has also reanimated fiction, and not just American fiction, generally,” he said.

“His career is remarkable in that he starts at such a high level and keeps getting better.”

But the withdrawal of one of the three judges after the announcement has cast doubt on the Man Booker proceedings. Carmen Callil, author and the head of publishing house Virago, has rejected the outcome and officially removed herself from the panel, voicing an intense distaste for Roth’s work.

“He goes on and on and on...