Shorthand for this one: The Favorite. (Alternative shorthand: The White-Man-Teaches-The-Unwashed- To-Love-Literature Book)Mister Pip is set on the South Pacific island of Bougainville in the early 90s. As rebels approach and the white folks flee, only "Pop Eye" Watts remains to teach the local students using the only book he can find, Dickens' Great Expectations. The … Continue reading Booker Prize Roundup: Mister Pip

Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach was the bookie's favorite when the longlist for the Booker Prize was announced, but with the release of the shortlist that honor has moved to Mister Pip.On Chesil Beach is the Establishment Choice in this year's nominees. McEwan has been longlisted five times; he won 1998's prize for his novel … Continue reading Booker Prize Roundup: On Chesil Beach

Among this years Man Booker Prize shortlist, Anne Enright's novel The Gathering can be summed up as The Irish One. But hers is not a land filled with alcoholic fathers and penny whistles. "Anne Enright, born in Dublin in 1962, gives us an Irish fiction that leads out of tradition into something zestily new," says … Continue reading Booker Prize Roundup: The Gathering