Haruki Murakami, Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie are also among those highly tipped for the prize, announced on Thursday
and Salman Rushdie are among the most likely authors to win this year’s Nobel prize for literature, according to bookies.
The winner is due to be announced on Thursday at about noon GMT. “It’s a wide-open field as far as the odds are concerned, but the latest figures suggest punters are fast-growing convinced by Can Xue’s chances,” said Alex Apati of Ladbrokes. The prize is awarded to “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”, according to the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel. This year, the prize money will rise to 11m Swedish kronor , from 10m SEK.
After Murakami at 14/1 is Gerald Murnane, 84, the Australian author of novels including The Plains and Inland. His work is often self-referential. In a, Emmett Stinson wrote that “Murnane’s international recognition has been belated”.