At midday on Wednesday,the opening list of runners and riders for Britain’s main books prize is unleashed on the reading world. Who will it be? Who will it be?With less than 24 hours to go before the longlist is announced, we’re starting to wonder who’ll acquire up this year’s Man Booker dozen – even though offering predictions is, or in this game of “posh bingo”,as Julian Barnes set it, a bit like filling in your card before the numbers have been called. In the second year that American authors have been eligible, and one obvious contender is Hanya Yanagihara’s epic tearjerker approximately love,friendship and the effects of childhood abuse: A Little Life is hot off presses in the UK and currently consuming readers on both sides of the Atlantic. Other US novels to eye out for include Marilynne Robinson’s Lila, the third in her Gilead series, or published to ecstatic reviews last November; a strong debut from Atticus Lish exploring poverty and tough graft in an unforgiving post-crash US,Preparation for the Next Life; plus highly praised novels of New York mental life (Ben Lerner’s 10:04), politics and race in Clinton’s Houston (Attica Locke’s Pleasantville) and gothic goings-on in rural Virginia (Sara Taylor’s The Shore). Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com