Booker Prize Predictions
I haven’t had time to write up my review of all the Booker contenders, and the winner is announced tonight. So, here are my predictions and my personal choice.
To put things in perspective, I thought that last year there were two outstanding novels (Banville’s The Sea, the winner, and A Long, Long Way by Sebastian Barry) and two very good ones (Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro and Arthur & George by Julian Barnes) on the shortlist. If any one of those novels were on the list this year they would be the runaway winner. It’s a very disappointing list this year.
That said, there are three books that I’m undecided between: Carry Me Down by M.J.Hyland, In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar and Mother’s Milk by Edward St. Aubyn. It’s very difficult to pick a winner out of those three. I keep wavering between them, but in the end I think I’m going to plump for Carry Me Down with Mother’s Milk a close second.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Sarah Walters or Kiran Desai won.
But the really big question is: why isn’t Andrew O’Hagan’s Be Near Me on the list? That’s the best eligible novel I’ve read this year by a long distance.
