Tuesday, September 09, 2008

The Booker Prize Short List

Yet again I've failed to make the Booker Prize short list, but neither did Salman Rushdie with The Enchantress of Florence. In my case it's none too surprising as I don't write fiction. . . well not proper fiction. In Mr Rushdie's case it's a little more surprising as he was very definitely the bookies favourite to scoop the prize; William Hill had him at 4/1. I've not read his book, but Mrs.H. has and she described it as, "Odd"; she didn't really enjoy it. The short list is as follows with Sebastian Barry the 2/1 favourite.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant

The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher

A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear you didn't make the list, Richard! Next year, eh? ;-)

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Yes, nest time, I'm sure! I've been wanting to read that Rushdoe book.

CherryPie said...

I have not heard of any of these!!!

Richard Havers said...

CP, Nor have most people!

Anonymous said...

You know, I had a thought when I rad the list about whether this was another PC endeavour. (Or is this just me being cynical? Suffering from PC-fatigue?)

Selena Dreamy said...

"I've not read his book, but Mrs.H. has and she described it as, "Odd";"

Please convey to Mrs H. that Booker Prize contenders are meant to be "odd".. Nor should they be read for enjoyment. They're better known for sinuous, sub-claused prose, sometimes incomprehensible and often illiterate prolixity and dandified onomatopaeic prose. Oooops...(I think).

I also think you’re meant to dine out on Bookers, and impress your friends!

Richard Havers said...

Mrs.H, who is a keen reader of both our blogs will be relieved. We prefer dining out with hookers