Man Booker Prize shortlist announced

[TGS]

...and can be seen here

[charleski]

I see they now have an App, 'cause that's what all the popular kids have - whoopity doo.

Pity David Mitchell didn't make it.

[GERGE]

I was rooting for Skippy Dies but...well

[HarryT]

For those who want to know what the shortlist actually is:

• "Parrot and Olivier in America" by Peter Carey (Faber and Faber)
• "Room" by Emma Donoghue (Picador - Pan Macmillan)
• "In a Strange Room" by Damon Galgut (Atlantic Books - Grove Atlantic)
• "The Finkler Question" by Howard Jacobson (Bloomsbury)
• "The Long Song" by Andrea Levy (Headline Review - Headline Publishing Group)
• "C" by Tom McCarthy (Jonathan Cape - Random House)

[TGS]

Originally Posted by HarryT

For those who want to know what the shortlist actually is:

• "Parrot and Olivier in America" by Peter Carey (Faber and Faber)
• "Room" by Emma Donoghue (Picador - Pan Macmillan)
• "In a Strange Room" by Damon Galgut (Atlantic Books - Grove Atlantic)
• "The Finkler Question" by Howard Jacobson (Bloomsbury)
• "The Long Song" by Andrea Levy (Headline Review - Headline Publishing Group)
• "C" by Tom McCarthy (Jonathan Cape - Random House)

Or just click on the link in the OP, where you can get more information about each book.

[amjbrown]

'C' and 'The Finkler Question' aside, all available in the UK Kindle store.

Amjb

[montsnmags]

I admit to an uncritical bias towards Peter Carey, hoping for a third win. Oddly, I've only read one of his previous winners, Oscar & Lucinda, and didn't much like it, and the book of his I loved wasn't the other winner (it's Bliss, one of my favourite books of all).

Cheers,
Marc

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by FranklinWalker

man any more details?

Any more details about what?

[Sparrow]

Nice to see no horrid SF listed, from August's 'Ansible' :

The Perennial Booker Whinge. Andrew Motion explains that genre-tainted pariahs were not excluded from the 13-novel Booker Prize longlist; it merely chanced that right across the board, by a multiple happy coincidence, they failed to be included. Here's the Guardian: 'There are no first novels – which have become a feature at longlist stage in the last few years, and there is no genre fiction. Motion said they had not consciously set out to exclude genre but stressed that the Man Booker prize was an award for literary fiction and there were plenty of prizes for crime and sci-fi.'

[HarryT]

It's good that the aren't biased. Not like the "Orange" award, where eligibility depends on your genetic make-up.

[GERGE]

Unlike many other awards, I really respect Booker. But in the past they too have shown some suspension of literary taste. I don't know what you think (I would be glad if you offer your opinion)but The Line of Beauty was terrible, Vernon God Little was terrible, I hated The God of Small Things. I believe the best novel which won a Booker is How Late It Was, How Late.

But I am just 23, so you should not to take my literary taste seriously

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by HarryT

For those who want to know what the shortlist actually is:

• "Parrot and Olivier in America" by Peter Carey (Faber and Faber)
• "Room" by Emma Donoghue (Picador - Pan Macmillan)
• "In a Strange Room" by Damon Galgut (Atlantic Books - Grove Atlantic)
• "The Finkler Question" by Howard Jacobson (Bloomsbury)
• "The Long Song" by Andrea Levy (Headline Review - Headline Publishing Group)
• "C" by Tom McCarthy (Jonathan Cape - Random House)

It appears that ALL titles can be purchased in Kindle format in the UK.

The titles in bold can be purchased in Kindle format in Canada and US from amazon.com.

The titles in bold italic can be purchased in Kindle format in the US but NOT in Canada from amazon.com.

All the titles except The Long Song by Andrea Levy can be purchased in Canada from kobobooks.com as DRM ePub. That title is available in the US from Sony eReader store (but not Canada).

The Sony e-reader store has some, but not all, of the titles, and some not in both Canada and the US.

Waterstone's in the UK carries only 4 of the 6 as ePub. However, this includes The Love Song and it appears they are willing to sell it to me in Canada.

On balance: given it's a British prize, bravo that all the titles can be purchased there in Kindle format. And there is complete, or near complete, availability in North America (although in Canada you need both Kindle and ePub readers) -- and one may have to be a little adventurous to find a legal source for every title (ie opening a Waterstone's account in Canada).

[SameOldStory]

That is one of the most horrible list I've seen in a long time!

Seriously, you can tell that it is GREAT LITERATURE. It's as dull as dull can be.

"It's been a great privilege and an exciting challenge for us to reduce our longlist of thirteen to this shortlist of six outstandingly good novels. In doing so, we feel sure we've chosen books which demonstrate a rich variety of styles and themes ...."

Really?

I've read everything from cheap pulp fiction to Homer's Odyssey, and The Greek Myths by Robert Graves. I do know what variety is.

There is not a single book on that list that I would download, even if it were free.

[Sparrow]

I haven't read any of them - but I wouldn't mind seeing Howard Jacobson win, I've enjoyed what I've read of his.

But I agree with previous posters that the Man Booker Prize has a patchy record.

My favourite previous winner (of the ones I've read) is "The Siege of Krishnapur" by J. G. Farrell.
Least favourite is "Possession" by A. S. Byatt.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's good that the aren't biased. Not like the "Orange" award, where eligibility depends on your genetic make-up.

Maybe the idea of the Orange Prizes was to redress the balance - women writer's have perhaps historically been overlooked by the literary establishment and, hence, by readers.