2012 Man Booker Prize overly populist. Whether or not as a response to this, the 2012 jury strongly emphasised the value of literary quality and linguistic innovation as criteria for inclusion. The winner was Hilary Mantel, an early favourite, for her book "Bring Up the Bodies", the sequel to her novel "Wolf Hall", which won the award in 2009. Mantel became the first woman, and the first Briton, to win the prize twice. A strong challenger to Mantel was established writer Will Self, who was nominated for the first time. Other shortlisters included second-time nominee Tan Twan Eng, Deborah Levy, who returned from a
2012 Man Booker Prize careers of her two brothers. As Busner's experiment shows unexpected consequences, it appears the encephalitic patients' condition – with their endless repetition of mechanical movements – is little more than a manifestation of the condition of 20th century man. Will Self's career has seen the publication of a great number of works of fiction and non-fiction alike, yet "Umbrella" is the first novel for which he has been shortlisted for a Booker Prize. The novel has been compared to James Joyce's "Ulysses" because of its stream of consciousness literary style. Self, however, insisted that the formalism was "always of secondary