The big news is that Ian McEwen’s On Chesil Beach stays alive. I’ve heard pretty good things about the book, but I’d guess it’s not winning. He’s already won one for Amsterdam, and Atonement, considered by most to be his best, didn’t win in 2001 (True History of the Kelly Gang took it home that year). For the slight On Chesil Beach to win the prize would seem odd. Clearly, I’m not alone in this thinking, as the bookies, who favored McEwen when the longlist was announced, now favor Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. The longlist was offered here with some excerpts less than a month ago, but since you might not have gotten around to them then, we’ll offer the same with the shortlist below.
- Darkmans by Nicola Barker
- The Gathering by Anne Enright (excerpt)
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (excerpt)
- Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (excerpt)
- On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (excerpt)
- Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (excerpt)
