As with any shortlist, you find yourself disappointed to an extent that certain authors or titles got left behind. Michael Frayn's Skios, for instance, as well as The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, were not chosen for the final six. On the other hand Hilary Mantel's Bringing Up the Bodies seems set to make her the first British writer to win the literary accolade twice, having won it already for the prequel, Wolf Hall.
I think perhaps an equality commission targetted the booker this year, with everything seeming distinctly 'fair'. In terms of gender, there are equally three men and three women on this year's shortlist and it seems to be the year of the small publisher, with them making up half of the list. Now I'd been thinking how wonderful it is and how astonishing that these small companies hadn't managed to make the list before... turns out there's a fee to pay if you are nominated... 'congratulations, you're in line to be the best literary novel of the year, that'll be A MILLION POUNDS please.' ok, so not a million... maybe. no really..
Anyway, what you really want to know is if any of them take your fancy, so here you go:
Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books)
Malaya, 1949. After studying law at Cambrige and time spent helping to prosecute Japanese war criminals, Yun Ling Teoh, herself the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle fringed plantations of Northern Malaya where she grew up as a child.
Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories/Faber & Faber)
A merciless gaze at the insidious harm that depression can have on apparently stable, well-turned-out people. Set in a summer villa, the story is tautly structured, taking place over a single week in which a group of beautiful, flawed tourists in the French Riviera come loose at the seams.
Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies (Fourth Estate)
By 1535 Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith’s son, is far from his humble origins. Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes have risen with those of Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife. But Anne has failed to bear a son to secure the Tudor line. At Wolf Hall, Cromwell watches Henry fall in love with plain Jane Seymour. The minister sees what is at stake: not just the king’s pleasure, but the safety of the nation. See my review here.
Alison Moore, The Lighthouse (Salt)
The Lighthouse begins on a North Sea ferry, on whose blustery outer deck stands Futh, a middle-aged, recently separated man heading to Germany for a restorative walking holiday. As he travels, he contemplates his childhood; a complicated friendship with the son of a lonely neighbour; his parents' broken marriage and his own.
Will Self, Umbrella (Bloomsbury)
Umbrella sets out to understand the nature of the modern world by going back to the source – the industrial madness of World War One. Set across an entire century, Umbrella follows the complex story of Audrey Death, a feminist who falls victim to the encephalitis lethargica epidemic that rages across Europe, and Dr Zack Busner, who spends a summer waking the post-encephalitic patients under his care using a new and powerful drug.
Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis (Faber & Faber)
A rich and hallucinatory novel, set around a Bombay opium den, that follows a fascinating cast of flawed characters as the city transforms itself over three decades.
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