When the judges for the 2010 Man Booker prize were announced back in December last year, the press release stated that the longlist, or Man Booker Dozen (12 or 13 titles), would be released some time in late July. A couple of weeks in other words. And I'm wondering if this year might be a "genre" year for the prize.
Peter Temple's Miles Franklin Award-winning Truth was released in the UK in hardback in January, and in paperback in July, so that one should be eligible. For a while there I thought that China Mieville's The City & The City might have had a chance, but a quick look at Amazon UK shows it was released in May 2009, so it was eligible last year.
Or maybe I'm getting as confused as everyone else about books that cross the boundaries between literary forms. Looking back on it now can anyone tell me how "magic realism" differed in any great way from "fantasy"? Does anyone write in the "magic realism" genre any more? And where does David Mitchell's work fit? Is The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet a straight historical novel (which would imply that it's a front-runner) or a slightly fantastical alternate Japan that title and synopsis seems to point at (which implies it doesn't have a hope)? I have no idea.
For a number of years I spent the early part of each year building a list of shortlist "possibles" for the Booker, scanning the UK book reviews looking for highly-praised works, or searching for future releases of past winners. And each year I built up a list of about 50-60 books that I thought might have a chance.
But not this year. I've been too busy with extra-curricula activities and haven't got the faintest idea of who is in the running. It will be good to be able to scan the list and say "Who's that...?" It might actually make it a bit interesting for a change.
