It began with a comment. Three years ago, Sarah Jessica Parker casually typed "Oh let me try!!!!" under a post that was talking about "what it takes to be a judge for booker prize" on the Booker Prize's official Instagram page. A playful plea that, as it turns out, became prophetic.
If someone had asked us what the ideal job for Carrie from Sex and the City would be decades later, we might have thought of the same thing.
Fast forward to this week, and the Sex and the City star was not just sitting in the audience but on stage at the Booker Prize ceremony in London, cheering as David Szalay's Flesh was announced as the winner.
For the 59-year-old actor, producer and publisher, the journey from witty comment to literary gatekeeper has been nothing short of transformative.
From Comment To Committee
When Parker made that Instagram remark, it might have seemed like a fleeting moment of enthusiasm from a celebrity reader. But the organisers of the Booker Prize clearly took notice. Known for her long-standing passion for literature and publishing, from leading her own imprint, SJP Lit, to her earlier work with SJP for Hogarth, Parker was a natural fit for the judging panel of one of the world's most prestigious literary awards.
Her enthusiasm for books is no performance. "Reading fiction is the gateway to other cultures, traditions, smells, sounds, personal triumphs and disappointments. It is the transport to empathy, compassion and greater understanding of lives wonderfully different from my own," Parker said while reflecting on her Booker experience to .
169 Books In 7 Months
When the first box of submissions arrived, Parker was on a family holiday in rural Ireland. "We were in rural Ireland for a Christmas holiday and I was on my way to SuperValu, our local market, when I saw a friend going the other way, and knew in the back of their car was this box from Booker with the first 16 titles," she recalled in an interview with New York Times.
That moment marked the start of an intense literary marathon. Over the months that followed, she devoured 169 novels, often at the cost of family time and sleep.
"My husband and children knew what this meant. No one tried to compete with the Booker," Parker said in the interview. "Anytime after dinner, when there was a discussion about what movie to watch, no one asked me. Everybody knew what I would be doing."
Her husband, actor Matthew Broderick, and their children became accustomed to seeing her at the table, a book in hand, or at volleyball games, reading with the covers removed so no one could guess the title.
Parker spent much of the year in her New York home office, which she fondly calls "a depository", transforming it into a sanctuary of stories. To keep herself company, she turned to unfamiliar music. "Because we were reading in such volume and there was such an intensity to the reading, I couldn't listen to any music that I normally would," she said. "So I started listening to Tibetan, Ukrainian, Nigerian and Cuban music. It changed the entire tone of the room," she added.
The Final Decision
Finally, when the judges finally met in London last Saturday, the debate stretched beyond five hours. "The first part was just discussing the virtues of each book again: Why was this book here? What did we discover rereading them? Nothing negative allowed," Parker said.
Eventually, when fellow judge Roddy Doyle declared, "We have a winner," she was startled. "For some reason, in all my pondering, I had never thought of him saying those words," she said. "And we sat for a second, then thought, 'Gosh, we're really proud of this.'"
Their choice, Flesh by David Szalay, tells the rags-to-riches story of a Hungarian teenager who climbs the rungs of British society. Parker called it "singular, exciting, propulsive, emotional".
The Booker Prize Ceremony
At the grand ceremony on Tuesday night, Parker leapt up from her seat to get a clear view as Szalay accepted the trophy. She described the experience as exhilarating and deeply moving - the culmination of a literary adventure that had consumed her life for more than a year.
The Booker Prize, often regarded as the most influential award in English-language fiction, not only transforms the career of the winner but also, as Parker discovered, the lives of its judges.
READ MORE: British-Hungarian Writer David Szalay Wins Booker Prize For Novel 'Flesh'