2009 Man Booker Prize - Fiction Shortlist Announced

The winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize for fiction will be announced on the 6th of October from the following shortlist of contenders:

A S Byatt The Children’s Book (Random House, Chatto and Windus)
J M Coetzee Summertime (Random House, Harvill Secker)
Adam Foulds The Quickening Maze (Random House, Jonathan Cape)
Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall (HarperCollins, Fourth Estate)
Simon Mawer The Glass Room (Little, Brown)
Sarah Waters The Little Stranger (Little, Brown, Virago)

This list includes previous winners (Coetzee – 1983 and 1990; Byatt – 1990), former judges (Mantel, Byatt) and those whose work has been either longlisted or shortlisted in the past. This year’s longlist, announced this past July, included Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín and William Trevor’s Love and Summer. Listen to extracts from the entire longlist courtesy of GoSpoken and the Man Booker Prize. The 2008 winner of the prize was White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.

Read the full press release.

Update 6 October 2009: And the winner is...

Comments: 12

Richard Frisbie Sep 8, 2009, 6:04pm EDT

There was a time I'd have read most of the entries. Now that I don't read fiction (or PW) I have to admit I don't know these titles. Thanks for news.

reply to this comment

phil w. Sep 8, 2009, 6:08pm EDT

thanks for the info .

reply to this comment

James B. Sep 8, 2009, 8:47pm EDT

Thanks, these look well worth investigating.

reply to this comment

Faith H. Sep 8, 2009, 9:10pm EDT

Thank you for this information, Diana.

reply to this comment

Chris W. Sep 8, 2009, 9:56pm EDT

I read Byatt's "Possession" back in the day. Man that was a tough read. Parts of it were awesome, especially the slam bang ending, but hard to make it through parts.

I like Trevor, and will read that book for sure. Great to hear from you Diana.

Christine Zibas Sep 9, 2009, 11:38pm EDT

I loved Byatt's "Possession" and didn't find it hard to read at all. Maybe I just have the temperament for that sort of story. I thought it was amazing.

Diana Raabe Sep 10, 2009, 3:23pm EDT

I always meant to read Possession but never got around to it. I have read everything by Sarah Waters, however, except for her latest which is in my TBR file.

Trevor's Lucy Gault is around here somewhere, as well.

reply to this comment