The Booker longlist was announced yesterday. Going over the list, I noted that it didn’t seem very multi-cultural. One of the interesting things about the Booker is that any author from the Commonwealth of Nations or from Ireland is eligible. This means that any of 54 countries might send a writer to Booker glory. This year, however, the judging committee is keeping things geographically constrained, with only three countries represented among the 13 finalists:
- England, 9 (Byatt, Foulds, Harvey, Lever, Mantel, Hall, Mawer, Scudamore, Waters)
- Ireland, 3 (O’Loughlin, Toibin, Trevor)
- South Africa, 1 (Coetzee)
Moving on to less serious matters, the Booker betting odds are now out (and subject to change as punters put their money on the line). The bookmakers like Toibin and Waters to win, but James Lever is putting in an impressive showing with his mock memoir of a chimp.
- 4/1 Colm Toibin – Brooklyn
- 4/1 Sarah Waters – The Little Stranger
- 5/1 Hilary Mantel – Wolf Hall
- 6/1 J.M. Coetzee – Summertime
- 8/1 James Lever – Me Cheeta
- 10/1 A.S. Byatt – The Children’s Book
- 12/1 William Trevor – Love and Summer
- 14/1 Ed O’Loughlin – Not Untrue and Not Unkind
- 14/1 Simon Mawer – The Glass Room
- 16/1 James Scudamore – Heliopolis
- 16/1 Adam Foulds – The Quickening Maze
- 16/1 Sarah Hall – How to Paint a Dead Man
- 16/1 Samantha Harvey – The Wilderness
