The longlist for the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction is out and I'm uber-uber, extra-thrilled to find that Michael Redhill's Consolation is on the list. You may recall I have a deep, deep crush on the man and his work. I've been trying to place a review of it for awhile now and had not mentioned it here because, well, I was trying to mention it elsewhere. A solid eight months after having read it, it still repeats on me (in the best way), it still haunts me. The layers. The way memory works vs. how we wish memory worked. And so much more. A fine achievement and I'm thrilled that he's on the list.
True to form for me, however, there are several books on the list (okay, most) that I've not even picked up. Some aren't even in the pile:
- Darkmans by Nicola Barker
- Self Help by Edward Docx
- The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
- The Gathering by Anne Enright
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid
- The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies
- Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
- On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
- What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn
- Animal's People by Indra Sinha
- Winnie & Wolf by A.N. Wilson
Per my previous entreaties about creating a new set of rules to reward the unread, which book are you rooting for and/or will you secretly flog yourself for not having read once the winner is announced?
