The finalists for this year’s Man Booker Prize were announced last week. They are:
Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape – Random House)
Sebastian Barry On Canaan’s Side (Faber)
Carol Birch Jamrach’s Menagerie (Canongate Books)
Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers (Granta)
Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues (Serpent’s Tail)
Yvvette Edwards A Cupboard Full of Coats (Oneworld)
Alan Hollinghurst The Stranger’s Child (Picador – Pan Macmillan)
Stephen Kelman Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)
Patrick McGuinness The Last Hundred Days (Seren Books)
A.D. Miller Snowdrops (Atlantic)
Alison Pick Far to Go (Headline Review)
Jane Rogers The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Sandstone Press)
D.J. Taylor Derby Day (Chatto & Windus – Random House)
The shortlist of six authors will be announced on Sept. 6, and the winner announced October 18.
So far I’ve only read The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt, which I loved. You can read my review at https://2manybooks2littletime.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/the-sisters-brothers-by-patrick-dewitt-had-me-at-hello/
Have you read any of the rest of these? What did you think?
One of my longterm gripes about the Booker nominees is that some of the books aren’t even released in the states by the time they announce the shortlist. Other than that, I read Pigeon English last week and enjoyed it… it reminded me in some ways of the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
I have Brothers and Sisters coming to me by way of a friend, and Snowdrops and Far to Go on hold at the library. There were a lot of unknowns (to me) on this list, which makes it more enjoyable than one more Peter Carey novel, if you know what I mean. 🙂
By: Jenny on August 5, 2011
at 8:48 am
I have read four of the Booker Long List thus far. The four are Snowdrops, Pigeon English, The Sisters Brothers and Jamrach’s Menagerie. All are good reads. I predict that Jamrach’s Menagerie and Pigeon English make the Short List. I am posting Long List book reviews on my blog http://aliteraryreeder.wordpress.com.
Richard Reeder
By: aliteraryreeder on August 23, 2011
at 8:06 am
Thanks for this information. I’ve been wondering which were worth reading – this is really helpful!
By: Jeanie F on August 23, 2011
at 12:41 pm
Not only haven’t I read any of these, I haven’t heard of most of the authors. It’s nice to see a different selection, I’ll have to look these up. Thanks for posting!
By: curlygeek04 on August 5, 2011
at 10:59 am
Jenny and Curly, I agree with you both. A lot of new authors and books to explore on this! Kind of fun to see some titles that new – even the Booker Man judges commented on this.
By: Jeanie F on August 6, 2011
at 12:40 am