The 2010 Booker Prize list mixes youth and experience

It’s nearly that time of the year again. Literary critics prepare to sharpen their pens in the hope of puncturing egos while promising new authors are launched onto the scene and publishers rub their hands with glee at the thought of elevated sales.

This year’s list is a classic, if one bears in mind that the Booker Prize inevitably becomes a battle between a young author with a dazzling, if untested, reputation and at least one venerable older writer. The contest becomes even more interesting if the established name has won the Booker Prize on at least one previous occasion.

This year’s line-up has already caused quite a few ripples, not the least of which being that a virtual newcomer is outselling the established literary stars by some distance. The current financial winner of the 2010 Booker Prize is Christos Tsiolkas, whose novel The Slap tackles the thorny issue of a man at a suburban barbecue disciplining a child that isn’t his is currently outselling the competition.

The longlist, announced at the end of July includes 13 titles: Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey, Room by Emma Donoghue, The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore, In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut, The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson, The Long Song by Andrea Levy, C by Tom McCarthy, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, February by Lisa Moore, Skippy Dies by Paul Murray, Trespass by Rose Tremain, The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas and The Stars in the Bright Sky by Alan Warner.

As usual the bookies are taking bets on the eventual winner and the contest couldn’t be closer; joint favourites are Christos Tsiolkas and David Mitchell. Although two of David Mitchell’s previous novels (number9dream and Cloud Atlas) have been nominated for the Booker, he has yet to be victorious.

However, it would be reckless to dismiss Peter Carey’s chances. Along with South Africa’s J.M. Coetzee, Carey is the only novelist to have won the Booker twice and his chances of landing a third victory are considered to be very real.

The shortlist will be announced on Tuesday 7th September.

New post on at Thursday, 19 August, 2010, 11:17 am and is archived in Culture, Lifestyle. Subscribe to answers with RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.