The Man Booker is out
…and what do you mean you’ve only heard of one of them:
- Darkmans by Nicola Barker (4th Estate)
- Self Help by Edward Docx (Picador)
- The Gift Of Rain by Tan Twan Eng (Myrmidon)
- The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
- The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (Sceptre)
- Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
- Gifted by Nikita Lalwani (Viking)
- On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
- What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn (Tindal Street)
- Consolation by Michael Redhill (William Heinemann)
- Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster)
- Winnie & Wolf by A.N.Wilson (Hutchinson)
Ok, I’ve heard of two not that it makes it much better.
Interestingly, there are four debuts:
- The Gift Of Rain by Tan Twan Eng (Myrmidon)
- The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (Sceptre)
- What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn (Tindal Street)
- Gifted by Nikita Lalwani (Viking)
And somewhat surprisingly three of them are by smaller presses. Might be worth a closer look. Luckily John Self and dovegreyreader are on a Man Booker Read-a-thon so they’ll sort the wheat from the chaff!
Yeah, leave it to us! Have read five already, which is a blessing as that leaves 8 to get through in 4 weeks. Now halfway through Nikita Lalwani’s Gifted, which I’m enjoying. Review will be up in the next couple of days.
I haven’t read *any* of these yet, but would like to have a go at Self Help, Mister Pip, and - having just read John Self’s review - Gifted. Intrigued by Darkmans too.
Also, everyone keeps raving about What Was Lost, so I think I might have to give that a shot too.
So many books, so little time…
Nothing is biting yet - I’m going to wait until the jury is in I think. That’s the DGR and JS jury BTW.
Thanks for stopping by. Your stastic actually comforted me a bit because it made it sound like a couple of reading hours a day would do the trick. But I’m not sure some of these Booker books encourage page a minute reading!
I like what you’ve got going in your sidebar here. I admire someone willing to give up on a book and admit it. I see ‘Electricity’ on your radar. I read that recently and found it to be pretty good.
Well the JS jury at any rate is placing Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People very high on the shortlist prospects. A real surprise and I feel thoroughly ashamed that I approached it with such disdain.
@ jem I shall stop by more. Nice blog you have going on there.
Boosk are the best “value for money” in time-per-money-spent. The only downside is some take a lot of time…
Oh I’m not that brave. I haven’t said why I’ve gave up on them - and one of them I’m having to restrain myself on. I wouldn’t use it to stand on.
@ the JS jury. You’re not being that helpful. You’re liking far too many. Does that mean they’ve put together rather a decent list this year?
It seems they have, Gav. I haven’t actively disliked any of them, however I have tried to make it clear when there are weaknesses or other elements that people might hate, eg in the Nikita Lalwani, Catherine O’Flynn and Anne Enright. Once I get them all done I’ll maybe rank them in my own Self-involved fashion. Unless Barker, Redhill or Wilson turn up something unexpected, top three are likely to remain Ho Davies, Jones and Sinha.