Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg
Longlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize, ‘Did You Ever Have a Family’ by Bill Clegg opens with an explosion caused by a gas leak at June Reid’s house on the morning of her daughter’s wedding. The...
View ArticleA Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
Shortlisted for both the Man Booker Prize and the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction last year, ‘A Spool of Blue Thread’ by Anne Tyler tells the story of three generations of the Whitshank family during...
View ArticleThe God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Winner of the Booker Prize in 1997, ‘The God of Small Things’ by Arundhati Roy tells the story of twins Esthappen and Rahel and their extended family living in Ayemenem House in Kerala, southern India...
View ArticleThe Man Booker Prize 2016 Longlist: Predictions, Possibilities and Preferences
Although I have been following several major literary awards for the past few years, I have never written a blog post specifically outlining my predictions for the Man Booker Prize… until now. Famously...
View ArticleThe Man Booker Prize Longlist 2016
The longlist for the Man Booker Prize 2016 was announced today. The thirteen books are: The Sellout by Paul Beatty (Oneworld) The Schooldays of Jesus by J. M. Coetzee (Harvill Secker) Serious Sweet by...
View ArticleSerious Sweet by A. L. Kennedy
Longlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize, ‘Serious Sweet’ by A. L. Kennedy is set over the course of twenty-four hours in London in 2014, following a day in the lives of 45-year-old recovering...
View ArticleDo Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
Shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize, ‘Do Not Say We Have Nothing’ by Madeleine Thien is a multi-generational saga of two families set against the backdrop of key events in 20th century Chinese...
View ArticleWe Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
It would have been interesting to read ‘We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves’ without knowing the twist which is revealed on page 77. However, as Karen Joy Fowler’s sixth novel has been one of the...
View ArticleHis Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize, ‘His Bloody Project’ by Graeme Macrae Burnet tells the story of seventeen-year-old Roderick Macrae, accused of committing three brutal murders in a remote...
View ArticleFilm Review: The Sense of an Ending
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a preview screening of the film adaptation of ‘The Sense of an Ending’, based on Julian Barnes’s bestselling novella first published in 2011. The story follows Tony...
View ArticleThe Man Booker Prize 2017 Longlist: Predictions, Possibilities and Preferences
I only started blogging about my predictions for literary award longlists relatively recently. Three of my Man Booker Prize predictions last year made it on to the longlist of 13 titles, and two of...
View ArticleThe Man Booker Prize 2017 Longlist
The Man Booker Prize 2017 longlist was announced today. The 13 books are: 4321 by Paul Auster Days Without End by Sebastian Barry History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund Exit West by Mohsin Hamid Solar...
View ArticleSolar Bones by Mike McCormack
‘Solar Bones’ by Mike McCormack won the Goldsmiths Prize last year and has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize this year after it was picked up by the UK-based publisher Canongate. It tells the...
View ArticleElmet by Fiona Mozley
Last year’s Man Booker Prize longlist was largely dominated by established authors apart from the surprise inclusion of PhD student Fiona Mozley with her debut novel ‘Elmet’ which made the shortlist...
View ArticleThe Golden Man Booker Prize
2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the Man Booker Prize and the organisers have launched a one-off prize to celebrate the best of the winning novels to date. Five writers and poets will be choosing...
View Article4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize last year, ‘4 3 2 1’ by Paul Auster consists of four different versions of the life of Archibald Issac Ferguson, born in Newark, New Jersey in 1947 (the same year...
View ArticleHotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
I haven’t read many of the early winners of the Booker Prize but ‘Hotel du Lac’ by Anita Brookner is one I have been meaning to read ahead of the Golden Man Booker Prize celebrations later this year....
View ArticleMan Booker Prize: The Best of the Shortlists
The Man Booker Prize is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with a “best of the best” Golden Man Booker Prize due to be awarded next month. However, while the winning novels have often been met...
View ArticleThe Man Booker Prize 2018 Longlist: Predictions, Possibilities and Preferences
The Man Booker Prize longlist will be announced on Tuesday 24th July and the annual guessing game of “posh bingo” commences once again. When considering which books could make the cut, I have been...
View ArticleThe Man Booker Prize 2018 Longlist
The Man Booker Prize longlist for 2018 has been announced today (officially this time – it seems it was accidentally leaked by the Guardian yesterday afternoon). The 13 books are: Snap by Belinda Bauer...
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