PJE's Booker Blog: 2007 Man Booker Prize Shortlist

Thursday, September 06, 2007

2007 Man Booker Prize Shortlist

The 2007 Man Booker Prize Shortlist

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

It's good to see Nicola Barker on the shortlist for the first time, but all this McEwan-favourite-for-Booker-prize stuff really has to stop. Lloyd Jones is the favourite. Interest in Mister Pip has been on the rise since the longlist announcement, and according to one report, bookies stopped taking bets on it at one point. In fact William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe sounded a bit upset: "We have seen an unprecedented gamble on this virtually unknown writer," he whined, "In a quarter of a century of Booker betting I cannot recall as spectacular a gamble before - Jones could even eclipse McEwan as clear favourite when the short-list is announced, and we could be looking at up to a six figure battering if the gamble pays off."
Awww diddums. They shouldn't have been offering such long odds in the first place. Don't they listen to a word I say?
I think I'll be rooting for Indra Sinha though. I haven't got hold of Animal's People yet, but it sounds like it could give Mister Pip a run for its money.
"There is nothing in the book that hasn't happened in Bhopal. I hope people will wake up to it and realise what happened. It is time people were treated properly and with respect," Sinha told IBN.
Hear, hear.Read, read.

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