Murakami Odds on Favorite to Win Nobel Prize

Who will get the Nobel nod for Literature come October? Of course it’s anyone’s guess at this point, but at the moment British-based gaming company Ladbrokes is predicting Haruki Murakami by offering 3-1 odds that the Japanese novelist will take home the money.

The author, 64, became a household name in his native country with his 1987 novel Norwegian Wood. A departure from his earlier work, its use of realism and simple plotting helped him to reach a larger audience and established Murakami as the voice of the Japanese baby-boomer generation. The book was adapted for the screen in 2010 by French-Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung.

Other contenders for the Nobel Prize for Literature include Joyce Carol Oates with 6-1 odds; Alice Munro at 12-1; Philip Roth 16-1, Milan Kundera at 21-1 and Cormac McCarthy, Darcia Maraini, Nuruddin Farah; Salman Rushdie; Margaret Atwood and Don DeLillo all at 40-1.

You can see the complete list of contenders here.