Well this came out earlier this week but two night shifts really caught me earlier this week so I m a day or two late her is the short list .
2011 Shortlist
- JAMIL AHMAD, Pakistan – The Wandering Falcon (Penguin India/Hamish Hamilton)
- JAHNAVI BARUA, India – Rebirth (Penguin India/Penguin Books)
- RAHUL BHATTACHARYA, India – The Sly Company of People Who Care (Pan Macmillan/Pan Macmillan India/Picador)
- AMITAV GHOSH, India – River of Smoke (John Murray/Penguin India/Hamish Hamilton)
- KYUNG-SOOK SHIN, South Korea – Please Look After Mom (Alfred A. Knopf)
- YAN LIANKE, China – Dream of Ding Village (Grove Atlantic)
- BANANA YOSHIMOTO, Japan – The Lake (Melville House
Here are mine and my fellow Man Asian Shadow jurors reviews of the short lisrted books –
Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke. Reviews by Matt, Mark, Lisa and me.
The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto. Reviews by Matt, Sue, Lisa, and Mark.
Please Look After Mother by Kyung-Sook Shin. [Note: US editions are entitled Please Look After Mom.] Reviews by Matt, Lisa, Mark, and Stu.
Rebirth by Jahnavi Barua. Reviews by Stu and me.
River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh. Reviews by Lisa, Mark, and Matt.
The Sly Company of People Who Care by Rahul Bhattacharya. Reviews by Mark,Lisa, and me.
The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad. Reviews by Lisa, Stu, Mark, and Sue.
As you see every book has a couple of reviews .I hope to have some of the others review here before the prize day that I ve not got too yet .I ve a favourite in my mind but want to wait and see if the books I ve not read blow me away If any one has spare copies of the river of smoke or lake I d love to borrow or swao them .
I’m planning to read ‘Please Look After Mother’ soon (got it from the library today). Not overly surprised that ‘The Lake’ got in over ‘1Q84’ – Murakami’s is the better book for mine, but Yoshimoto’s is a nice, short, interesting read.
I hope get my hands on copy of the lake ,all the best stu
Thanks for posting this, Stu. I’ve actually read three of these (all borrowed from my library) and have two on my library hold list.
Oh look forward to your reviews on the others ,all the best stu
Thanks for posting this, Stu. I can’t believe that there are four books by authors from the Indian subcontinent in the shortlist! Aren’t books by Central Asian writers and Middle Eastern writers eligible for the prize?
Forgot to add one more thing. I can’t believe that Murakami’s ‘IQ84’ is missing from the list! Are the judges saying that the other books are better than Murakami’s? Or is it a way of giving more visibility to new writers?
I ve not read it but from what I gather Murakami is a bit of a let down in English to most people ,as for your other question there is the arabic booker for middle east and it is open to central asian writers but nothng made the list this year ,a;; the best stu
Ashame to say I haven’t read any books on the list. It all sounds intriguing and will surely read some of them in due course.
look forward to your reviews when you do ,all the best stu
Stu if you’re struggling for a copy of The Lake I got a PDF version from Melville House to read on my Kindle, I could you forward you it if you want, though I realise it’s not ideal. Incidentally I’m reading Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka at the moment, a Sri Lanka cricket novel (on the DSC shortlist) and it’s superb.
I may get lake when in london end of the month ,all the best stu