On Tuesday evening I was in London, at the British Library listening to three of the authors in the short list for the Man Booker Prize read from their novels. It was part of the run up to the award ceremony on the 18th of this month.
The writers present were Carol Birch, Stephen Kelmen and A D Miller. The event had been organised for book groups and library staff, I had been offered a ticket by my sister-in-law.
It was an interesting evening with all three writers reading form their selected novels, interestingly for two of the authors this was their first published work-so there is hope for all of us. I have to say I had not read any of the novels and I found listening to the authors read illuminating in that as they read I decided which one I thought would win the prize.
My money would be on Stephen Kelmen for Pigeon English. We shall have to wait and see....
I want Stephen Kelmen to win, having read 5 of the shortlist, his is the most gripping, emotive and most current of stories. I also thought Jamrach's Menagerie was excellent. Not long to wait now...
ReplyDeleteI will have to read something by these authors . . . the names are unfamiliar to me, which I should probably fix!
ReplyDeletePolly-we wus robbed! Never mind there's always the next book.
ReplyDeleteGolden Eagle: as you can see I would recommend Pigeon English, I'm reading Half Blood Blues at the moment by Esi Edugyan, another short listed book, it is shaping up to be an interesting read.