Neel Mukherjee tipped to bag Booker Prize on Tuesday

LONDON: Indian-born Briton Neel Mukherjee is tipped to win the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his novel 'The Lives of Others', according to the odds by William Hill, one of the largest bookmakers in the UK.

The Booker prize winner will be announced on Tuesday. The Booker prize foundation opened the competition for the $80,387 prize to include all authors writing in English and published in the UK for the first time in its history.

Previously, the prize was open to authors from the UK and Commonwealth countries, the Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe, but the organizers decided to throw it open for 2014 after 45 years.

Announcing that decision, Jonathan Taylor, chairman of the Booker prize foundation, said, "We are embracing the freedom of English in its versatility , in its vigour, in its vitality and in its glory, wherever it may be. We are abandoning the constraints of geography and national boundaries."

The new rules led to the inclusion of two American authors, Karen Joy Fowler for 'We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves' and Joshua Ferris for 'To Rise Again at a Decent Hour'.