Man Booker 2012 Shortlist Announced

The Man Booker Prize shortlist for this year has been announced (today, September 11, 2012). The shortlisted books were selected from a longlist of 12 books. The following are books selected by the judges chaired by Sir Peter Stothard:
  1. Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books)
  2. Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories/Faber & Faber)
  3. Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies (Fourth Estate)
  4. Alison Moore, The Light House (Salt)
  5. Will Self, Umbrella (Bloomsbury)
  6. Jeet Thayil, Nacropolis (Faber & Faber)
According to Peter Stothard
After re-reading an extraordinary longlist of twelve, it was the pure power of prose that settled most debates. We loved the shock of language shown in so many different ways and were exhilarated by the vigour and vividly defined values in the six books that we chose - and in the visible confidence of the novel's place in forming our words and ideas.
Trivias
The shortlist includes two debut novels (Alison Moore's The Light House and Jeet Thayil's Nacropolis); three small independent publishers (Myrmidon Books and Salt); two former shortlisted authors and one previous winner (Hilary Mantel with Wolf Hall). There are three men and three women authors; four British, one Malaysian and one Indian.

The winner of the 2012 Prize will be announced at a dinner at London's Guildhall on Tuesday October 16, 20112. Each of the shortlisted writers is awarded with 2,500 Pounds and a specially commissioned beautifully handbound edition of his/her book. The winner receives 50,000 Pounds.

Comments

  1. stujallen11 September 2012 at 14:02

    great list nana I hope to read most if not all before prize announced ,all the best stu

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ImageNations11 September 2012 at 17:01

      I hope I will get to read one or two on the list. You're doing great Stu.

      Delete
  2. @parridhlantern12 September 2012 at 19:41

    A great list, Am a fan of Salt's Modern Poets books.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ImageNations19 September 2012 at 09:02

      I like it when the small presses make great showing. it speaks volumes; shows that quality work is not the preserve of a few.

      Delete
  3. Andrew Blackman16 September 2012 at 16:19

    It's good to see some smaller publishers on there - an interesting list this year. Hilary Mantel has to be the favourite, but I have a feeling it could be Will Self's year. Will be interesting to see!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ImageNations19 September 2012 at 09:03

      Yes... you think Hilary will come close? I've not read any of the books on the list to make a judgement but I'll monitor it closely on the web.

      Delete

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