Okay, we’ll admit it, some of you might not be checking up on us for the books. It started out light, some humor, some music related reads, maybe a graphic novel or two (okay we never actually reviewed any of those, but we thought about it). Then we go adding book groups to your event calendar and talking about poetry nights and literary honors. Don’t be scared! We’re still fun (sorta).
The Man Booker Prize is not some old stuffy award given to a book that will make high schoolers (or college freshman) moan for years to come (well, maybe). Started in 1969, the Man Booker Prize is awarded to one contemporary fiction novel each year. The catch is it must be authored by a writer from the United Kingdom Commonwealth or Ireland (which of course leaves us off the short list).
The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga, was the 2008 winner of the Man Booker Prize, and man, that book blew this A-Lister away [Me too - Rube]. Other winners include Life of Pi, by Yann Martel (2002), The Blind Assassin, by Margret Atwood (2000), and The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy (1997). This year’s prize will be announced on October 6th, and the short list is:
The Children’s Book, by A. S. Byatt
Summertime, by J. M. Coetzee
The Quickening Maze, by Adam Foulds
Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
The Glass Room, by Simon Mawer
The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters
Remarkably, this year’s short list contains two prior Man Booker Prize winners. J. M. Coetzee‘s The Life and Times of Michael K won in 1983, and his follow-up Disgrace won in 1999. Summertime is his third book in the trilogy, and if it wins he will be the only author to have received the prize three times. A. S. Byatt, who’s The Children’s Book is on my personal reading list (that is, haven’t read it yet but will), won in 1990 for Possession.
The Man Booker prize list is more than a geeky excitement over the best British books of the year, but also a great place to start for anyone looking for a great fiction read.
by Gunter Grass. All are welcome.
