Tash Aw, The Harmony Silk Factory (Fourth Estate)
John Banville, The Sea (Picador)
Julian Barnes, Arthur & George (Jonathan Cape)
Sebastian Barry, A Long Long Way (Faber & Faber)
J.M. Coetzee, Slow Man (Secker & Warburg)
Rachel Cusk, In the Fold (Faber & Faber)
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (Faber & Faber)
Dan Jacobson, All For Love (Hamish Hamilton)
Marina Lewycka, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Viking)
Hilary Mantel, Beyond Black (Fourth Estate)
Ian McEwan, Saturday (Jonathan Cape)
James Meek, The People’s Act of Love (Canongate)
Salman Rushdie, Shalimar The Clown (Jonathan Cape)
Ali Smith, The Accidental (Hamish Hamilton)
Zadie Smith, On Beauty (Hamish Hamilton)
Harry Thompson, This Thing Of Darkness (Headline Review)
William Wall, This Is The Country (Sceptre)
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The Shortlist was announced on September 8, 2005
John Banville, The Sea (Picador)
Julian Barnes, Arthur & George (Jonathan Cape)
Sebastian Barry, A Long Long Way (Faber & Faber)
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (Faber & Faber)
Ali Smith, The Accidental (Hamish Hamilton)
Zadie Smith, On Beauty (Hamish Hamilton)
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Here are some reviews of the shortlist Booker books.
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Booker Facts and News (gleaned mostly from the Booker website but also the New York Times and the canada.com network with a couple of personal comments thrown in so don't take it all too seriously) -
In the interview published in New York magazine, the glamorous 30-year-old trashed her homeland, describing it as "disgusting" and "vulgar," and claimed that the England she knew is no more.
"When I talk about England now, I just think of the England that I loved, and it's gone," Smith complained. "It's terrifying."It's the way people look at each other on the train; just general stupidity, madness, vulgarity, stupid TV shows, aspirational assholes, money everywhere."
* Again from CanWest News Service 2005: Smith disliked the kind of celebrity treatment she was getting from the British media and fled England in 2004 to study at Harvard. She only recently returned. * Also from CanWest News Service 2005: She told New York she had trouble dealing with fame. "I want to get on the Tube. I want to have a life. I'm not interested in being stared at."
She said America gave her the anonymity she craved, but also noted that "in America only a few weirdos read."
Smith also admitted she wasn't that impressed with novel writing as a profession.
"Writing a novel is quite stupid work. In a novel, you're never wrong. Novelists aren't intellectuals. They're just intuitive if they're lucky."
* And finally, from CanWest News Service 2005: This year's finalists surprised a lot of Booker watchers because of the failure of three favorites -- Ian McEwan's Saturday, Salmon Rushdie's Shalimar The Clown and Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee's Slow Man -- to make the short list.
... and don't it just make my head goes sideways ...
From The New York Times:
* The early favorite, according to Ladbrokes, the British oddsmaker, is Mr. Barnes's book, at 6 to 4, followed by Mr. Barry's, at 4 to 1.
* The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (Picador) won the Man Booker Prize in 2004.
(Bookies were betting the 2004 Booker winner would be David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas.)
From The Man Booker Prize Website
* The Man Booker Prize for Fiction represents the very best in contemporary fiction. One of the world’s most prestigious awards, and one of incomparable influence, it continues to be the pinnacle of ambition for every fiction writer.
* The winner of the Man Booker Prize was chosen from 109 entries. 101 books were submitted and 8 books were called-in.
* The winner of the Man Booker Prize receives £50,000. The six shortlisted authors each receive a cheque for £2,500, bringing the total prize value to £65,000.
* Every year publishers are allowed to submit two books for the Man Booker Prize. Every former Booker Prize winner and any author who has appeared on the shortlist in the last ten years is also eligible.
Makes for such positive reading and a happier, healthier mood.
* The Booker Prize for Fiction was originally set up by Booker plc in 1969 to reward merit, raise the stature of the author in the eyes of the public and encourage an interest in contemporary quality fiction. In April 2002, it was announced that the Man Group had been chosen by the Booker Prize Foundation as the new sponsor of the Booker Prize. The sponsorship will run until 2006 during which time the prize will be known as the Man Booker Prize.
* Man Group plc is a leading global provider of alternative investment products and solutions as well as one of the world's largest futures brokers. The Group employs over 2,800 people in 15 countries, with key centres in London, Pfäffikon (Switzerland), Chicago, New York, Paris, Singapore and Sydney. Man Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EMG.L) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
* Booker is part of the Baugur Group of companies. Booker is the UK's leading wholesaler with over 170 branches nationwide. It serves over 350,000 independent businesses.
I'd say it sounds like WalMart.
Now, after looking up some more info on Booker-the-Company,
it still sounds like WalMart.
* Monday October 10 - This year’s winner will be announced at an awards dinner at Guildhall and will be broadcast live on BBC TWO and BBC FOUR.
* The 2005 judges are chaired by John Sutherland who is joined by fiction editor of the Times Literary Supplement, Lindsay Duguid; writer and antiquarian book dealer, Rick Gekoski; novelist, Josephine Hart; and literary editor of The Evening Standard, David Sexton.
I'm ashamed to say it, but I've read only one from the short list.
Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go was fantastically haunting.
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