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Barry's 'flawed' novel wins Costa prize.

The novelist Sebastian Barry was named the winner of the Costa Book of the Year award last night in spite of writing a novel that was, according to the judges "flawed in many ways". The decision to award Barry, a 53-year-old Dubliner, with the £25,000 Costa prize for The Secret Scripture was in spite of the fact that the book had "a lot wrong with it" in the eyes of the nine-strong judging panel.

Matthew Parris, the columnist and chair of the judges, said "It was an extraordinarily close finish among the judges. The feeling among judges was that there was a lot wrong with it [The Secret Scripture]. It was flawed in many ways, almost no one liked its ending. For some, this was fatal. I don't think the ending works, no-body thought the ending worked. But there was a feeling among the judges that many great works of literature are also flawed."

...So, I just don't get it. What is up with these judges? There are loads of new books out there on the market. I read a few books, some are good and some are poor. Some books I reckon are above average and some below average. Some books I think are an acceptable read but a few I reckon are brilliant. Therefore I cannot understand how nine judges cannot find one book that they all like. To vote a book that had "a lot wrong with it" and "was flawed in many ways, almost no one liked its ending" the winner of the Costa Book of the Year award is beyond me. What this shows is that the Costa Book of the Year award has little to recommend it, it should not be taken as an endorsement for purchase and the judges' selection is lacking in quality.

Buying a book to read is a bit like buying beef in a supermarket. The portion of beef you buy is a lottery regardless of how it looks in the packaging. You could strike lucky and really enjoy your beef or you could be disappointed and wish you had bought a chicken instead. The beef however is not rated by so called judges who give a £25,000 prize to a flawed novel.

I suggest that you read the covers of books for sale and take your purchase as a gamble, whilst ignoring the awards given out by judges. The judges recommendations do not make for a safe bet as I have found to my cost when I have bought and read What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn, The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai and The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid.