Just for the record, this year’s Man Booker Shortlist has been announced:
- The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga
- The Secret Scripture – Sebastian Barry
- Sea of Poppies – Amitav Ghosh
- The Clothes on Their Backs – Linda Grant
- The Northern Clemency – Philip Hensher
- A Fraction of the Whole – Steve Toltz
Perhaps the most notable absences from the longlist are John Berger’s From A to Z, Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence, and the bookie’s firm favourite Netherland by Joseph O’Neill.
The Booker continues to lead the way in terms of how a literary prize is presented and branded, with an interesting blog where the judges give an insight into the prize selection process. What is missing, though, is any clue as to how reaction to the longlist might eventually affect the outcome of the shortlist.
Hats off, though, to
Sebastian Barry who has made the shortlist again (the only veteran on this year’s shortlist). Here’s a small excerpt from the TMO interview with Barry, back when
A Long Long Way was shortlisted in 2005
Three Monkeys: A number of writers have started turning their attention to the effect and meaning of the attacks of September 11th. It took Ireland, through writers such as yourself, decades to come to terms with the Great War (indeed it could be argued that the process is an ongoing one, by no means finished). Is it then too early to start approaching, successfully, 9/11 in literature and art?
Sebastian Barry: I don’t know. But I suspect the reported number of good novels this year is a result of 9/11 and all the other alarums of recent years. I think it set a certain gear into movement, unseen, silent, at the heart of many writers. Writers with children, writers with that hope of a peaceful century; a sort of literary battle stations. I was not surprised to hear Ali Smith describe her wonderful book [The Accidental] as a war book.
