Dear Everyone We’ve read Antonia Honeywell’s list of the 10 things she learned from reading the Man Booker longlist (read it here), and have made particular note of point 5, namely the superiority of America and Americans in All Things.  We are shocked – SHOCKED – to find that for years and years and years, […]

So the Man Booker shortlist has been announced. Jim Crace (no surprise there), Colm Toibin (for the third time), Eleanor Catton (why not? Thought they might), NoViolet Bulawayo, Ruth Ozeki and Jhumpa Lahiri (*checks again, slightly taken aback*). While I am extremely pleased that the list includes four women, I think some excellent, original writing […]

Unfortunately I can only select writers from the official Man Booker long list for my imagined shortlist. So I can’t feature Maggie Gee or Evie Wyld or Patrick Ness. So, a drumroll please… the shortlist will consist of…Crace (because he’s going to win), Toibin (to prove that short novels can be vast and important, and […]

I spent this summer reading the Booker longlist. All thirteen novels. Every word, cover to cover. The shortlist will be announced tomorrow. Mine will be announced before midnight tonight. In the meantime, here are ten things I have learned from my reading. A book doesn’t have to be published to be shortlisted. I expect everyone […]

Lahiri’s novel is officially published later this month.  It’s a curious quirk of the awards that a novel can be longlisted – indeed shortlisted – before any general reader has had the chance to read it. But than again, the Man Booker is not a reader’s prize – it’s an industry prize. Lahiri has already […]