The Birdcage Archives

Wednesday 23 July 2014

The Booker Prize Longlist 2014

Hello Gentle Reader

This is an interesting year for the Booker Prize. The award itself has opened itself up to American authors. Before The Booker, was a award that was received only by commonwealth writers, who had written in the English language. Many (including myself) spelt doom for The Booker Prize, being taken over by American authors; and of course I had pitied the poor judges that had to deal with the amount of books that surely had doubled (if not more) for them to create a longlist; which would be all that more difficult as they would surely be forced, to handle the books with a sense of fairness and equality to both the new arrival and those that have been traditionally awarded the prize. In other words the list could not be overtly American nor could it be un-American; or pushing away, the new contenders. It’ll be a tightrope act, and it’s the pilot project to see if it will work.

Here are the nominated books:

Joshua Ferris (U.S.) – “To Rise Again at a Decent Hour,”
David Mitchell (UK) – “The Bone Clocks,”
Richard Flanagan (Australia) – “The Narrow Road to the Deep North,”
Karen Joy Fowler (U.S) – “We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves,”
Howard Jacobson (UK) – “J,”
Siri Hustvedt (US) – “The Blazing World,”
Neel Mukherjee (India) – “The Lives of Others,”
Paul Kingsnorth (UK) – “Wake,”
David Nicholls (UK) – “Us,”
Joseph O’Neil (Ireland) – “The Dog,”
Richard Powers (US) – “Orfeo,”
Niall Williams (Ireland) – “History of the Rain,”
Ali Smith (UK – Scotland) – “How to Be Both,”

There you have it Gentle Reader, The Booker Prize Shortlist.

Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*

M. Mary

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