Salman Rushdie may be better known as a novelist, but he’s a wonderful literary critic, and I’m grateful for his many admirable reviews of other authors. Over at Medium, I’ve posted one of my favorite quotes from him on why books matter:
August 13, 2022
Salman Rushdie: Books ‘Make Us Who We Are’
September 9, 2008
Ghosh and Barry Make 2008 Man Booker Prize Shortlist – O’Neill and Rushdie Shut Out – Read the Full List of Finalists Here
Judge boasts in blog that “we had all got our cojones back, a bit” as panel kicks Netherland and The Enchantress of Florence in the nuts
The judges for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for fiction have announced the six finalists for the award, the winner of which will be named on Oct. 14:
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz
The losers included Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland and Salman Rusdie’s The Enchantress of Florence, which emerged as the favorites of London bookies after being longlisted for the prize in July www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/thisyear/longlist.
The bookies at the William Hill agency in London immediately named Barry the 2-1 favorite to win the Man Booker, which carries a cash prize of 50,000 pounds. The odds-makers at Ladbroke’s called Aravind Adiga the favorite with Linda Grant close behind www.themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1136. “We were convinced that the winner would be either Joseph O’Neill or Salman Rushdie and are amazed that neither even made the shortlist,” a spokesman for William Hill said. “As a result it looks like a very open competition with everyone in with a chance.”
Read about the six finalists for the Man Booker Prize at
www.themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1134.
Read about the shortlist selection process in a blog by judge Louise Doughty, including her boast that “we had all got our cojones back” at www.themanbookerprize.com/news/blog-judges-08.
Read reviews of all the books on the 2008 Man Booker shortlist from major U.S. and U.K. newspapers here www.reviewsofbooks.com/booker/.
© 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.
www.janiceharayda.com
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