So long as the Booker Prize keeps longlisting 13 titles, I’m going to keep making that joke. The Booker season is underway with the unveiling of 2008’s longlist. As is often the case, it is a mix of exciting new names, relative unknowns and old standbys. In the later category is Salman Rushdie who, as the recent winner of the Best of the Booker, was essentially named the quintessential Booker author and would have thus seemed an odd omission, despite the tepid notices The Enchantress of Florence has received.
Perhaps worthy of more excitement is Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland, which was the subject of dueling reviews from Garth and Kevin here at The Millions. The active commenting on Kevin’s review in particular underlines the enthusiasm that this novel has generated. Tom Rob Smith’s Child 44 has also generated quite a bit of enthusiasm this year. In December, Dan Kois of the New York magazine blog Vulture featured it in a contribution to our Year in Reading series. As always, the bookmakers have their own favorites: “Bookmakers William Hill have put Mr O’Neill as favourite to win the prestigious prize at 3/1, while Sir Salman has odds of 4/1.”
All the Booker Prize longlisters are below (with excerpts where available):
- The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (excerpt)
- Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold
- The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (excerpt)
- From A to X by John Berger
- The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser (excerpt)
- Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh (excerpt)
- The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant (excerpt pdf)
- A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif (excerpt)
- The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
- Netherland by Joseph O’Neill (excerpt)
- The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie (excerpt)
- Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (excerpt)
- A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz (excerpt)
