4th time a charm for Booker Prize-winning author Julian Barnes

Having three books previously shortlisted in the Booker Prize competition, British author Julian Barnes finally receives the win of a lifetime.

Barnes discovers that the fourth time is a charm as he takes home the winning prize and is rewarded the Booker Prize for 2011. The eleventh novel written by Barnes was published by Jonathan Cape on August 4th, 2011. It took judges roughly 30 minutes to determine this book as the winner. Stella Rimington, the head judge, believed the book spoke to human kind and was beautifully written. The winning book The Sense of an Ending is about Tony Webster, a middle age man, and his recollection of his school age friend Adrian Finn. Julian Barnes, born in Leicester, England in 1946 is a long time contemporary writer. Since 1980, Barnes continually produced a series of novels including his premier Metroland in 1980, Taking it Over published in 1991, and well as The Porcupine published in 1992. Two Canadian authors running against him were Patrick DeWitt with his novel The Sisters Brother and author Esi Edugyan with his novel Half Blood Blues were tough competitions for Barnes. Carol Birch, Stephen Kelman and A.D. Miller were also in the top six spots. Followers of the Booker Prize winners are not all too surprised over Barnes' success as he has had a total of three novels short-listed during his career. Barnes was awarded a grand prize of 50,000 pounds, or $80,000 USD. The author had three books shortlisted for the Booker Prize including his novels Flauber's Parrot from 1984, England, England from 1998, as well as Arthur & George published in 2005. The winning novel of the Booker Prize was published in 2011 titled The Sense of an Ending. Julian Barnes was also awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature 201 earlier this year.