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

Nicola Barker's novel Darklands is set in the town of Ashford in Kent, where the town's citizens are beset by the apparition of John Scogin, Edward IV’s court jester. Over several days and 840 pages, Scogin prompts each of the main characters to his or her own special madness. One rolls in the muddy seashore; … Continue reading Booker Prize Roundup: Darkmans

Of all the books on this year's Booker shortlist, the least familiar to me is Indra Sinha's Animal's People. It turns out to be a novel drawn from the author's own experiences in the aftermath of the Bhopal Union Carbide gas tragedy of 1984 (for information, click here). Sindha founded the Bhopal Medical Appeal (bhopal.org) … Continue reading Booker Prize Roundup: Animal’s People