The Best of the Booker, a one-off celebratory award to mark the 40th anniversary of the Booker Prize, announced its shortlist today.
The six shortlisted books, chosen from the list of 41 Booker Prize and Man Booker Prize winners, are:
Pat Barker's The Ghost Road (1995, Viking)
Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda (1988, Faber & Faber)
JM Coetzee's Disgrace (1999, Secker & Warburg)
JG Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur (1973, Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Nadine Gordimer's The Conservationist (1974, Cape)
Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981, Cape)
The shortlist was selected by a panel of judges - Victoria Glendinning, Mariella Frostrup and John Mullan.
The winner will be chosen by the public and voting begins today.
See The Voting Page here
I tried and failed to read the Rushdie. I loved the Carey, and embarrassingly, I haven't read the others...So, I think, rather undemocratically, Oscar and Lucinda gets my vote!
9 comments:
I've embarassingly only read the Ghost Road, so I voted for that, but am off in a few hours to hear Nadine Gordimer speak at the International Writers Festival here in Jerusalem this week, very excited!
Oh, that should be great, T, to hear Nadine live. Let us know how you get on.
I loved 'The Ghost Road' and 'Disgrace' but haven't read the rest. I'm sure you'll be inspired by NG, Tania.
So, Oslo, would you give either of those your Best of the Booker vote?
Can I play?
I have read 'Disgrace', 'The Ghost Road' 'The Siege of Krishnapoor' and thats it. I have Midnight's Children on a shelf somewhere.
They are so different...can I split it and give half a silver cup to Krishnapoor and half to Disgrace?
Thanks!
Well V, you are the best read best of the Bookers so far...but you gotta pick one!
I feel bad about picking one without having read them all - I wonder if I have time?! Out of the two I've read, I couldn't choose without going back over them; I've such a bad memory :-(
I haven't read the JG Farrell or the Nadine Gordimer. I think my vote would go to The Ghost Road but that's probably skewed by having read more by Pat than the other authors.
There are just so many books to read, eh? It's hard enough trying to keep up with the current crop, without going back. I already read/write full time as it is; I will clearly NEVER get to read all the books I want to. Bummer.
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