ImageNations

Last year, it was announced that books by Americans would be allowed entry into the Man Booker Prize. Whereas some readers and fans saw this as an unwanted deviation and a loss of focus for the renowned Prize, others saw it as the correction of a long-drawn anomaly by accepting all English-speaking countries. Prior to this announcement the Man Booker only allowed entries from British, Irish and Commonwealth authors. British authors lead this year's longlist of 13 books with five nominations. This is followed by American authors who enter the Prize for the first time with four nominations. The rest of the nominations is held by two Irish writers and one Australian writer. Below is the list: Joshua Ferris (US) – To Rise Again at a Decent Hour Richard Flanagan (Australia) – The Narrow Road to the Deep North Karen Joy Fowler (US) – We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Siri Hustvedt (US) – The Blazing World Howard Jacobson (Britain) – J Paul Kingsnorth (Britain) – The Wake

The first Faulks' novel I read was Devil May Care , a story written to mark the centenary celebration of he creator of the James Bond character, Ian Fleming. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the book. Perhaps, I would have liked the movie better. This is due to the different demands I place on movies and books. I expect more intellectual discourse from books, and more action (though I hate war movies) from movies. Consequently, this book stayed on my bookshelf for almost three and half years. I was scared of opening it, until I ran-out of books to read. This is one of those books you read and begin to wonder why you have not read it all this while, especially when it has been staring you in the face for years, begging you to pick it up and at least read the first line. According to the blurb ' ...Sebastian Faulks creates a work of fiction that is as tragic as A Farewell to Arms  and as sensuous as The English Patient .' And having read both books I should more than agr