Scott Pack (of The Friday Project fame) declares himself unsatisfied with the novels shortlisted for the Best of Booker competition and decides to host his own alternative Booker competition on his blog for the books which should have won the Booker, but didn't.This is the shortlist (chosen by a very well-qualified panel of judges) :
- Amongst Women by John McGahern
- Arthur & George by Julian Barnes
- Atonement by Ian McEwan
- Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe
- Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
- Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
- The Master by Colm Toibin
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills
- Waterland by Graham Swift
Some of my very favourite novels are here - Waterland, Atonement, The Restraint of Beasts, but there's also a nudge to read those I haven't yet got round to ... especially The Butcher Boy which I've heard such great things about.
Cloud Atlas is in the lead though ...
Oh and the prize? Says Pack :
I will bake a cake for the winner. ... Assuming they are . . . prepared to accept a cake from me. Lemon drizzle is my speciality but I can be flexible on that. One of them is bound to be allergic to something.(Found via Literary Saloon. Tom Gatti also discusses the award at The Times.)
7 comments:
Amazing that 4 of our bookclub reads are in there. Wouldn't have read them otherwise. And I haven't read the others.
I vote Cloud Atlas! But I'm not sure I'm qualified to vote cos I've not read 6 of them.
Cloud Atlas for me too! How such a masterclass in literary ventriloquism got overlooked the first time around is still a mystery to me....oh hang on! I got it! Not enough wrist-slitting depressing shit weighing it down.
Silly me.....
"the restraint of beasts" we have to read!
Er, what kind of beasts exactly?
Just gauging it on behalf of KayKay.
the novel is about guys who put up tensile fences to keep in cattle. but of course, all the best titles can have more than one meaning.
sharon?wasnt there an earlier post asking what books we were reading...?
yes, dear. It's under the stairs
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