Line of Beauty Beats Booker Line

by Steven Zeitchik, PW Daily for Booksellers -- Publishers Weekly, 10/21/2004

Described by the Guardian as a "novel of gay love in the Thatcherite '80s," Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty from Picador has won the Booker in the U.K., beating the odds of bookie and chattering class alike. Favored titles included Colm Toibin's The Master and David Mitchell's Cloud Nine.

The Line of Beauty is a beautiful coup for Bloomsbury USA. The house had a small number in print, about 15,000, most of which it has already sold in. But editorial director Karen Rinaldi says the house has ordered a new printing whose total isn't exactly known but that will go "way higher than that." Bloomsbury expects books to be available within about a week.

Bloomsbury, which had been open in an interview with PW earlier this month about its state of expectation, admits it's been a delicate few weeks. "We were basically trying not to think about [the odds]," Rinaldi said. "It seems every year is always a surprise."

Hollinghurst, described as "gracious but stunned" in his acceptance speech, is teaching at Princeton this fall.