Rick Gekoski - a capo della giuria che ha assegnato a Philip Roth il Man Booker Prize 2011 (qui sopra il ringraziamento dell'autore), ha spiegato il perché della scelta: "For more than 50 years Philip Roth's books have stimulated, provoked and amused an enormous, and still expanding, audience. His imagination has not only recast our idea of Jewish identity, it has also reanimated fiction, and not just American fiction, generally. His career is remarkable in that he starts at such a high level, and keeps getting better. In his 50s and 60s, when most novelists are in decline, he wrote a string of novels of the highest, enduring quality. Indeed, his most recent, Nemesis (2010), is as fresh, memorable, and alive with feeling as anything he has written. His is an astonishing achievement".
Tra i tanti candidati, Roth ha battuto anche Dacia Maraini (unica italiana). E a proposito di donne, c'è chi non ha gradito la scelta: secondo la giurata femminista Carmen Callil, Philip Roth non è neanche uno scrittore. Infatti è un genio.
