With topics including climate change, gender fluidity, migration and race, this year's Booker prize long list could not have been accused of ignoring current events, and contained a good mix of literary superstars and newer novelists.
Two of those big names - and indeed former winners - have now been named on the shortlist for the prize. Nobody will be surprised to see Margaret Atwood's name at the top of the list and she has to be a favorite for the overall award. Very few people have read The Testaments yet as it has been kept under lock and key until the launch date next week, but as a follow up to her classic The Handmaid's Tale it is sure to be a bestseller.
I'm more surprised to see Salman Rushdie's name on the shortlist - Quichotte is entertaining, and shows a clear knowledge of current events and celebrity culture, but it was, I thought rather rambling in parts and has seen mixed reviews since its publication.
Lucy Ellman's Ducks, Newburyport attracted a lot of attention for its format rather than its content. It's a 1000 page book consisting mostly of one run-on sentence, broken up by what seems to be an entirely separate story, although the strands of the two are drawn together by the end. The book centers on the internal monologue of its main character and readers will give nods of recognition at the simple way her thoughts bounce from one topic to the next. It's not an easy read however and although a narrative strand does eventually appear not every reader will be happy to put in the work needed to uncover it.
I had predicted Chigozie Obioma would make the shortlist for An Orchestra of Minorities, which deals with poverty, ambition and emigration through the prism of Nigerian myth and tradition. Another thought-provoking read is Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo which looks at the experiences of black women in Britain, while Elif Shafak's excellent 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds In This Strange World is a profound and humane look at sexual violence and exploitation.
Irish author Kevin Barry's Night Boat to Tangier didn't make this year's shortlist but hopefully being on the long list will result in a boost in sales for this very entertaining and literary work. Meanwhile, a book I was sorry didn't make the final cut is Lanny by Max Porter. He was widely praised for his debut novel Grief is a Thing With Feathers and has followed it with another fine look at young children and their families. Lanny is an unusual child, growing up in a traditional English village complete with eerie folk tales and mythic creatures. The novels takes a while to bed in and get its characters established but then takes a dramatic turn, and I had to read the second half twice, once to see what happened and again to appreciate the language and form. The ending might make you cry too.
The winner of this years Booker Prize will be announced in London on Monday 14th October - possibly not the only news story happening that day in the British capital in a year where fact is challenging fiction every step of the way.
