August 3, 2008

Booker Prize 2008 Longlist

The longlist of 13 books, often referred to as the ‘Man Booker Dozen', were announced yesterday. The following titles were chosen from 112 entries.
Aravind Adiga The White Tiger
Gaynor Arnold Girl in a Blue Dress
Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture
John Berger From A to X
Michelle de Kretser The Lost Dog
Amitav Ghosh Sea of Poppies
Linda Grant The Clothes on Their Backs
Mohammed Hanif A Case of Exploding Mangoes
Philip Hensher The Northern Clemency
Joseph O'Neill Netherland
Salman Rushdie The Enchantress of Florence
Tom Rob Smith Child 44
Steve Toltz A Fraction of the Whole
I have not read any one of these novels* and heard of only 3 of them (the one's bolded above) before today - all three by Indian sub-continent authors. More updates later with some reviews of these three books by people who have read them!
* This is true every year -- see my 2006 and 2007 Booker nomination posts!
P.S. I wished him via email but let me take this occasion to publicly congratulate my friend, Amit Varma who made the longlist in the 2nd Man Asian Literary Prize - the Asian equivalent of the Booker - which were announced 10 days back. Quite remarkable for a first novel - one which he himself has said was written under severe time restrictions in a short time-frame. I wish him well. Maybe we can even expect a surprise win even like the one last year? :) Weirder things have happened... like raining frogs. Ok..that was in a movie. Ok..raining fish? Oh..that's a novel I just read! :)

No comments:

Not one more refugee death, by Emmy Pérez

And just like that, my #NPM2018 celebrations end with  a poem  today by Emmy Pérez. Not one more refugee death by Emmy Pérez A r...