This year's longlist for the Man Booker Prize has been announced -- and well, yeah.
According to the Telegraph, "There are six novels from Britain, five from the US, one from Australia and one from Ireland". Here they are in that order:
Britain:
J by Howard Jacobson,
The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth,
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell,
The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee,
Us by David Nicholls
How To Be Both by Ali Smith
United States
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris,
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler,
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt,
Orfeo by Richard Powers
The Dog by Joseph O’Neill
Australia
The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan
Ireland
History of the Rain by Niall Williams
Hmph. How did they miss Jonathan Lethem's Dissident Gardens? (US) Or Fiona McFarlane's The Night Guest? (Australia) -sigh- Well, anyway, it does look to be an interesting list this year!
I don't know most of these books, only a few from U.S. writers, but what jumps out at me immediately is the disproportionate lack of women writers. Bah! Humbug! I thought we were beyond that already.
ReplyDeleteI know several people who'd agree with you!
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