more on the booker

From the distant Adriatic coast, a few thoughts on the booker shortlist. Well, firstly, despite the inclusion of Ian bloody McEwan, it's well chosen. I was really pleased to see the likes of Catherine O'Flynn on the longlist, but in the end most of the six shortlisted books are, well, bloody good novels, in the scheme of things.

Here's the shortlist

Darkmans, by Nicola Barker
On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan
Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones
Animal's People, by Indra Sinha
The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid
The Gathering, by Anne Enright

I'm not up to speed on all of them yet, so I will reserve judgement except to say that of the four I've read one looks like a clear winner (Anne Enright's 'The Gathering', which has just the right amount of gravitas and beauty) and one is my favourite by such a long way that it surely doesn't stand a chance of winning! That book is Indra Sinha's 'Animal's People', upon which I have a post brewing, so I'll save the superlatives for now.

I am prepared, incidentally - once the library get the damn thing in - to be dazzled by 'Darkmans', but until then it's Enright or Sinha all the way. And we'll leave why Gerard Woodward wasn't on the longlist 'til another day.