Category: Booker Prize
Books we have read that have been longlisted or shortlisted for the Booker Prize, or previous Man Booker Prize
READ FOR BOOKERTHON C is a 1960s-, modernist-style anti-novel steeped in philosophy. It follows Serge, an encoder, through WWI. ☁ Opening in England at the turn of the 20th century, C is the story of a boy named Serge Carrefax whose father spends his… Continue Reading “C – Tom McCarthy”
The 2003 Man Booker shortlist was another where we thought there was a stand out winner, however the judges didn’t see it the same way. Oryx & Crake is a life-changing book. Margaret Atwood not only has a hugely creative imagination, she is a… Continue Reading “Back Booker 2003”
READ FOR BOOKCLUB Chosen by Suzy In Netherland, we follow immigrant Dutchman Hans van den Broek, a financial analyst and cricket enthusiast, across a period of social turmoil following the 911 terror attacks on New York City. At the same time, Hans’ wife Rachel… Continue Reading “Netherland – Joseph O’Neill”
Category: Booker Prize, Colonisation, Contemporary fiction, Cultural, Domestic Fiction, Family drama, Immigrant story, Irish, Literary fiction, Philosophical, Political, Psychological, Realist, US fictionTags: Free Range Bookclub 2009
What a substantial stack of books on the Man Booker longlist this year! And we don’t just mean in size, but in scope, in ambition and punch. The ideas and importance as well as the number of pages seemed huge and overwhelming to us… Continue Reading “2009 – Bookerthon”
READ FOR BOOKERTHON A fictionalised memoir detailing the life of John Coetzee written from the point of view of the biographer. Told from the perspective of five people who have known him including a married woman with whom he had an affair, his cousin… Continue Reading “Summertime – J M Coetzee”
Category: Australian author, Booker Prize, Experimental fiction, Literary fiction, Metafiction, Philosophical, Postmodern Literature, Psychological, Satire, South African, Unreliable NarratorTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2009
READ FOR BOOKERTHON The Little Stranger is a mixed genre story set in a dilapidated mansion in Warwickshire, England in the 1940s. It features a country doctor who calls on an old family of declining fortunes who own the old estate that is crumbling… Continue Reading “The Little Stranger – Sarah Waters”
Category: Booker Prize, Family drama, Ghost story, Gothic, Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery/Crime, Political, Psychological, UK author, Unreliable NarratorTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2009
READ FOR BOOKERTHON Based on a real villa in Czechoslovakia, the house in this book is a minimalist masterpiece with a transparent glass room as its centre. Built for Liesel and Viktor Landauer in the 1920s, the house becomes the central character and the… Continue Reading “The Glass Room – Simon Mawer”
Category: Art, Booker Prize, Cultural, Family drama, Female Experience, Historical Fiction, Holocaust fiction, Literary fiction, Political, Psychological, Queer, UK author, War storyTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2009
READ FOR BOOKERTHON A fictionalised biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII. ❚ “Wolf Hall is primarily about Thomas Cromwell who in real life was a disliked man who worked for King Henry. He orchestrated… Continue Reading “Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel”
READ FOR BOOKERTHON The true story of poet John Clare’s incarceration in London’s Epping Forest, a mental asylum run on the reformist principles of occupational therapy. Lord Alfred Tennyson had his brother treated there and the book bases its storyline on the speculation of… Continue Reading “The Quickening Maze – Adam Foulds”
READ FOR BOOKERTHON Loosely based on the life of E Nesbit, The Children’s Book follows the lives of several inter-related families from 1895 through WWI. ❚ “The Wellwood family consists of Olive, Humphrey, Olive’s sister Violet, and many children. They are Fabians, living in… Continue Reading “The Children’s Book – A S Byatt”
Category: Art, Booker Prize, Coming of Age, Domestic Fiction, Family drama, Female Experience, Feminism, Historical Fiction, Literary fiction, Metafiction, Mthyical/folklore, Political, Psychological, UK author, War storyTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2009
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