Novel 'The Line of Beauty' Wins Booker

[cosmicone]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041019/ap_en_ot/booker_prize

By BETH GARDINER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON - Alan Hollinghurst's novel, "The Line of Beauty," a tale of a young, gay man dazzled by drugs, power and money in Margaret Thatcher's London, on Tuesday won Britain's most prestigious literary award.

Hollinghurst beat out five other finalists to win the $90,000 Man Booker Prize.

"It's very amazing to me that the long, solitary process of writing a novel should lead to a moment like this," Hollinghurst said in accepting the award.

The book, set in the 1980s, tells the story of Nick Guest, a gay 20-year-old Oxford graduate who takes a room in the home of an ambitious Conservative politician and his wealthy family.