…And I haven’t heard of any of these books (except for Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel), which is sitting on my iBooks bookshelf waiting for me to first start Wolf Hall and then read it. Really, what am I about trying to maintain a book blog without actually being able to read very much at all???
Anyway, enough of the self-flagellation and on to the long list:
- The Yips – Nicola Barke
- The Teleportation Accident – Ned Beauma
- Philida – André Brin
- The Garden of Evening Mists – Tan Twan Eng
- Skios – Michael Frayn
- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – Rachel Joyce
- Swimming Home – Deborah Levy
- Bring up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel
- The Lighthouse – Alison Moore
- Umbrella – Will Self
- Narcopolis – Jeet Thayil
- Communion Town – Sam Thompson
Since I haven’t read (or heard of) any of the books in this list, I have absolutely no guesses as to which books will make the short list and which one deserves to win the Man Booker. Who do you think will make the short list? I am very eager to try Narcopolis and the Hilary Mantel (I don’t think she will win this time around though. How many sequels have we seen win the Booker?).
If you haven’t read any of these books, which ones are you looking forward to reading?
This also reminds me to kickstart my Man Booker reading challenge that I completely forgot about almost as soon as I blogged about it 🙁
Looking forward to Deborah Levy’s book, Swimming Home, I like to think I read, but none of these have passed through my hands yet either, not have I read much about any of them in the blogosphere except for the Hilary Mantel, which I suspect most of the UK’s most prolific group of literary bloggers would have received gratuit anyway.
Most of these aren’t even out yet (except in the UK). Although I see Skios repeatedly, I’m just so hesitant to pick it up. I feel like a lot of these award books are more pretentious than actually good, quality stories. Eek.
I’m looking forward to reading Communion Town and am quite intrigued by The Teleportation Accident, although I hear his first novel (Boxer, Beetle) is better. I haven’t heard of most of these either though!
Haven’t heard of any of the books! Nothing new there for me…