2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction Shortlist

Among the many prestigious literary awards is the Man Book Prize for Fiction. The Man Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker-McConnell Prize, began in 1968. The prize recognizes the best novel of the year, written in English, and published in the U.K. When it began, only Commonwealth, Irish, and Zimbabwean citizens were eligible to win the prize. In 2013, the eligibility changed to any book in the English language. Winners of the prize, even nominees, tend to rocket toward literary stardom. For this reason, it is a highly sought after literary prize. Some even think it is the most important for an authorial career.

On October 13^th, the new Man Book Prize winner will be announced. This year’s nominees are powerhouses of literary ambition and talent, per usual. One of the best places to look for additions to your to-be-read pile is on the long and short lists of nominees for virtually any literary prize. For your reading pleasure, here is the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2015 Short List:

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

Marlon created a fictionalized account of an assassination attempt on Bob Marley in the midst of political turmoil in Jamaica. Described as “delightfully profane” and “a wild ride.”

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

A Little Life is a depiction of heartbreak, and a dark examination of the tyranny of memory and the limits of human endurance.

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

A Spool of Blue Thread tells a poignant yet unsentimental story in praise of family in all its emotional complexity. 

Satin Island by Tom McCarthy

An unnerving novel that promises to give us the first and last word on the world--modern, postmodern, whatever world you think you are living in.

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma

Through the story of a family, Obioma creates a personal story that mirrors the larger social and political tensions in Africa

The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota

An unlikely family created from a group of 13 men in flight from India.

For more information about the Man Book Prize for Fiction, including the announcement of the winner on October 13th, please visit http://themanbookerprize.com/. Happy reading!

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

The average person walks less than five miles a day going about his or her normal routines. Yachting shoes, or boat shoes (think Sperry Topsiders), were originally invented to provide traction on boat decks. Silent marriages typically do not last. Queenie is an old fashioned name in England.

How do these things connect? Ask Harold Fry.

Harold Fry is a retired man in a marriage that has all but dissolved. He spends his days puttering around his house, but never accomplishing anything worthwhile. That is, until he is contacted by Queenie Hennessey, a friend from the past. Harold discovers that Queenie has cancer and a hopeless prognosis. Harold cannot muster the proper sentiment for the letter he must write to Queenie, so he jots down a superficial note and leaves his house to take the letter to the corner mailbox. Harold’s inability to articulate in writing what he feels he must finally tell Queenie prompts a journey that serves many purposes: healing, appreciation, remembrance, grief, human connection.

I love a good story, but a story that actually makes you feel something is even better.  You might think that a book about a man in his sixties walking over 500 miles at a clip of roughly 8 miles per day is predictable, but you’d be wrong. While the reader is left to wonder if Queenie was a catalyst in the demise of this marriage, we are given a chance to see both Harold’s and his wife’s perspective of the path they took to reach the walk that would change everything.

In addition to the story of Harold Fry, the novel provides an opportunity to view our society and the importance we place on items, events, people, and life.

Harold Fry, the pilgrim in boat shoes.

As a side note, the novel was also nominated for the Man Booker Prize 2012. This is also a debut novel from writer Rachel Joyce.

And the winner in fiction is...no one

In a move that has shaken the literary world, when the Pulitzer Prize winners were announced yesterday there was a noticeable gap.  There were winners for investigative reporting and local reporting (congratulations to the 24-year-old Sara Ganim for starting her career with a bang), winners for drama and biography, but no one won the prize for a work of fiction. 

The judges announced that three finalists had been chosen but no single title earned a majority of the votes.  The finalists were Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, Swamplandia by Karen Russell, and The Pale King by David Foster Wallace. Each of these books was received to wide acclaim.  So what happened?  According to this great article by The Daily Beast, the jurors want to make clear that it wasn't a lack of good books.  Three jurors (this year, Maureen Corrigan, Susan Larson, and Michael Cunningham) narrowed the field of over 300 titles to 3 finalists.  The finalists were sent on to the board of 20 members, 18 of whom are voting members.  From there, the closed-door rules of the Pulitzer organization make it unclear what happened, but they have acknowledged there was a problem.  The resulting non-vote has angered many, from the jurors to publishers, authors to readers. 

In the world of non-fiction, there were winners in every category, including Dayton native Manning Marable's Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention for history.  Other winners include:

Biography - George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis

Poetry - Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith

General Nonfiction - The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

The final question for me is what is the value of the Pulitzer Prize? Are you more likely to read a book because it's won an award? I confess that I am, particularly for a select few awards (The Man Booker Prize, The National Book Award, and, usually, the Pulitzer are bound to attract my attention). With this year's non-award, will it be viewed as a three-way tie, or will none of the books get the extra boost of being a Pulitzer Prize winner?  What do awards mean to you and your reading? 

World Cup Caliber Authors--Japan

This is the final week of our tribute to the Women's World Cup by featuring authors from the winner's countries. The 2011 winner was Japan. The Japanese Women's National Soccer Team has appeared in a total of six world cups but never placed better than the quarterfinals.  Earlier this year they stunned the U. S. and the world and became the first Asian team to win the coveted championship.
Help celebrate their victory by reading one of the following talented authors of Japanese ancestry.

Kazuo Ishiguro--this Japanese-English author is best known for his 1989 Man Booker Prize winning novel The Remains of the Day but three of his other novels have been nominated as well.

Haruki Murakami--this Kyoto-born writer is an important writer of postmodern literature and has won numerous awards for both his fiction and nonfiction.  He's also the author of one of this fall's most talked-about books, 1Q84.

Kenzaburo Oe--born in 1935 in the village of Ose, he is a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature and he won the Nobel Prize in 1994.


Hiromi Kawakami--born in Tokyo, she is known for her offbeat fiction but is also a literary critic and provocative essayist.

Yukio Mishima--this author, poet, playwright, director, and actor was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times.  He committed ritual suicide in 1970 at the age of 45.

Julie Otsuka--this Yale graduate has written two novels based on the experience of her family members in Japanese-American internment camps during WWII.

Ruth Ozeki--this Connecticut born novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest has won the Kiriyama Prize and the American Book Award for her works.

Nina Revoyr--this Japanese-American novelist and multiple award winner has written four fascinating novels about small-town Wisconsin, the silent film era, girl's basketball, and Los Angeles.

Man Booker Longlist Recently Announced

The longlist for the Man Booker Prize was announced late last month.  Being on the longlist for this prestigious award is quite an honor.  There are definitely some interesting names among those on the list.  One former winner, Alan Hollinghurst in 2004, made this year's list for his book The Stranger's Child.  Several first-time authors are among the names as well.  Stephen Kellman for Pigeon English; Andrew Miller for Snowdrops and Yvette Edwards for A Cupboard Full of Coats are three first-timers listed. 

Here are a few other authors on the Man Booker Prize longlist.  Be sure to check these out at the library!

On Canaan's Side- Sebastian Barry
Jamrach's Menagerie- Carol Birch
Sisters Brothers- Patrick deWitt

Check out the past few winner's to whet your appetite even more!

The Finkler Question- Howard Jacobson (2010 winner)
Wolf Hall- Hilary Mantel (2009 winner)
The White Tiger- Aravind Adiga (2008 winner)
The Gathering- Anne Enright (2007 winner)
The Inheritance of Loss- Kiran Desai (2006 winner)

The shortlist of six authors will be announced on Tuesday, September 6th and the winner will be announced on Tuesday, October 18th.  Check out the Man Booker Prize site for more information and upcoming announcements.

Skippy Dies... (how's that for a spoiler?)

Let's be clear about one thing: I'm not really giving away anything when I tell you that in Paul Murray's latest book, Skippy Dies, Skippy does, in fact, die.  He dies in the first chapter of the book.  He dies eating donuts (not a bad way to go, I suppose) with his roommate, a modern-day, Irish Piggy.  The question for the rest of the book is, why did he die?  And, what did he have in mind when he wrote "tell Lori" on the floor in donut jelly as he was dying?

Let me be clear about one more thing: Ignore the inane reviews of this book that feel compelled to compare it to, "another popular series featuring an adolescent protagonist who, along with his friends, gets into all kinds of mischief at a haunted boarding school" (from Publisher's Weekly's review although, to be fair, Kirkus also made the comparison).  To compare this book to Harry Potter based on them both being in a boarding school is like comparing Wuthering Heights with the Catillac Cats because they both have characters named Heathcliff. 

Skippy's role as the central character in the book, in fact, seems to fades into the background after his rather dramatic passing.  I focused instead of the frustrated teacher whose life simply isn't living up to his expectations, the school bullies selling Ritalin as a diet aid to girls from the local schools, and the boys in the school whose interests vary from trying to have a dating life to trying to build a machine that will build a bridge between the different dimensions, thus enabling the living to communicate with the dead.  The titular character's interests and troubles go largely under the radar in this book, which seems somewhat odd until the end, when you realize that it is precisely his ability to blend in that has exacerbated many of his troubles. 

I wasn't sure I was going to make it to the end of this book; my attention started to wane for much of the middle matter.  I am glad I hung on, though, because the denouement really was thought-provoking, and capitvating.  It clarified Skippy's role in the lives of those around him and the role they played in his untimely death.

Room

I'll be frank: I'm not the most patient person in the world.  There are a lot of literary devices that grind on my nerves (to all those authors who've jumped on the epistolary fiction bandwagon in the past few years: I'm looking at you).  I'm usually quite annoyed by the contrivance of having children serve as the narrators of adult novels, particularly those with difficult topics.  Their voices tend to read as either overly precious and precocious, or as attempts for the author to distance him/herself from difficult subject matter ("yes, I'm writing about something gruesome and awful...but with cute words and misunderstandings, so don't find the subject too off-putting!").  Am I too easily annoyed?  Probably.  I can, though, on rare occasions, overcome that.  

 

Ever since the Man Booker long list was announced in July, I have been waiting (sometimes even patiently) to read Emma Donoghue's new book Room. While Room did not win the Man Booker Prize this year (the honor went to Howard Jacobson for his book, The Finkler Question), it is a gripping story that is definitely worth a read.  Given my tendency to disregard books written from a child's vantage point, my recommendation should be taken as a testament to Donoghue's ability to write with a child's perspective and the skill with which she does it.    Room is the story of five-year-old Jack, who serves as the book's narrator, and his mother, named only as "Ma." 

In this book, rather than having the horror mitigated by a child's voice, Jack's lack of understanding and knowledge about the tenuous setting of the only life he's ever known serves to heighten the danger and terror that Ma feels.  About halfway through the book, there is a major change in their  lives and the book changes in tone.  While the second half of the book is not as suspenseful or compelling as the first, seeing the world through Jack's eyes continues to be interesting and engaging.  Overall, it's a book worth checking out.

The British are coming! The British are coming!

Alright, perhaps the reference is a few hundred years old, but it's an exciting day for me.  Every year, I wait for the Man Booker prize short list to be announced, and today is that day. The excitement started back in July, when the long list (aka the Man Booker Dozen) was announced.  I promptly put on hold every title we own, prepared to read the books considered to be the best for the year in the British Commonwealth.   I am regularly wowed by the writing that these awards highlight.  More than other awards, the Man Bookers seem, to me, to focus on outstanding literary writing, regardless of what (or who) the media darling of the day might be.

The prize winner for the year will be announced on Tuesday, October 12. But for now, I'm working through my list of Man Booker longlist titles, a practice I started several years ago.  While I might not love every book on the list, I often find great books I otherwise wouldn't have heard of, and I can almost always count on excellent writing. I am desperate to read Room by Emma Donoghue, one of the short-listed titles.  I know I'm going to end up regretting it, because it's a "disturbing, suspenseful" book about kidnapping and I don't do particularly well with either disturbing or suspenseful.  Still, the concept of writing about a child who has never been outside of an 11x11 room at the age of five, and his subsequent introduction to the world, is fascinating to me. 

Other titles on the short list include:

Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey

The Long Song by Andrea Levy

C by Tom McCarthy

If you can't get enough prize winners from this list, check out these long-listed titles that didn't quite make today's cut:

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeZoet by David Mitchell
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Trespass by Rose Tremain

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

and don't forget to check out our Great Books Great Libraries list of Prize Winners!

Man Booker Prize Winner Announced!

Tuesday October 6, 2009 the Man Booker Prize winner was announced--and the winner is: Wolf Hall by English author Hilary Mantel! This 650-page historical monster is about the 16Th-century political maneuvering in the court of Henry VIII. The author retells the story of Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn from the point of view of Thomas Cromwell. Another interesting thing about this book is that it was favored to win by the oddsmakers (bookies, gamblers, etc.) and it did! The last time this happened was in 2002 when Life of Pi won.

For other non-British or Commonwealth authors who have had their work published or largely translated into English there is the Man Booker International Prize, which was awarded to Alice Munro this year for her body of work. So if you like historical fiction or just a good story then try Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Also, try one of the following authors that were runner-ups for the Man Booker Prize:

The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt

Summertime by J. M. Coetzee

The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

2009 Man Booker longlist announced

I made a pledge not three hours ago to not bring home any more books until I had read all of those currently in my library basket. This is not going to help me keep that promise: the longlist for the 2009 Man Booker prize was recently announced. This prize is my go-to every year of great books. When I do get through those in my basket, I will work my way through the titles on the long list in our collection:


Byatt, AS The Children’s Book


Mantel, Hilary Wolf Hall


Toibin, Colm Brooklyn


Trevor, William Love and Summer


Waters, Sarah The Little Stranger

For a complete list of the 2009 Man Booker long list nominees and more information about the award, check out the Man Booker website. The shortlist will be announced September 8, and the winner will be announced on October 6.