Win the Man Booker winner
Judges for the 2008 Man Booker fiction prize announced the longlist today. The 13 were culled from 112 entries, and include writers from Pakistan, India, Australia and Great Britain. There are five first novels and two novels by former winners. The 2007 winner was The Gathering by Anne Enright. The list: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger; Gaynor Arnold, Girl in a Blue Dress; Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture; John Berger, From A to X; Michelle de Kretser, The Lost Dog; Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies; Linda Grant, The Clothes on Their Backs; Mohammed Hanif, A Case of Exploding Mangoes; Philip Hensher, The Northern Clemency; Joseph O'Neill, Netherland; Salman Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence; Tom Rob Smith, Child 44; Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole.
Care to lay odds on the winner? Take a shot even if you haven't read them all. (Who has?) Readers who guess right will be entered in a Read Street drawing for a copy of the Man Booker prize winner. My bet (and I sure haven't read them all): Netherland.
