JOHN BANVILLE, JULIAN BARNES, SEBASTIAN BARRY, KAZUO ISHIGURO, ALI SMITH and ZADIE SMITH are the six authors shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2005, the UK's best known literary award. The shortlist was announced by the chair of judges, John Sutherland, at a press conference at the Man Group offices in London today (Thursday 8 September).
Poor Tash - though he did so well to get this far with his first novel.
And McEwan is also out! He was the bookies favourite, remember? And Rushdie! And Coetzee. Am quite stunned.
The odds are now:
5/4 - Julian Barnes, Arthur and George
4/1 - Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
5/1 - Zadie Smith, On Beauty
8/1 - Sebastian Barry, A Long Long Way
10/1 - John Banville, The Sea
12/1 - Ali Smith, The Accidental
Source: William Hill
Read more on the BBC website.
Looks like there's a very good chance of claiming my margueritas ...
And perhaps tomorrow I will got bookshopping in Kinokuniya with the 30% off vouchers I've collected.
Update:
What others make of the list - The Guardian and the Independent. Also worth reading are reader's comments on the Guardian blog. Our Eric has posted a comment there which he must have got in very soon after the list was announced!
4 comments:
If Kazuo wins, that will be another feather in the cap for the creative writing school at my alma mater.
heh, now i have a nice list fo my weekend shopping :) I'm interested in The Sea and Never Let me go, though I think I'll buy only one of them due to budget constraints.
Didn't really expect Tash to be shortlisted. But it's a good start for us, I guess.
ooooooooo have placed orders for books. yummy yummy.
read the readers' comments on bbc blog. entertaining!
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