The Man Booker shortlist was announced on 9 September. The nominees are:

Joshua Ferris (US) — To Rise Again at a Decent Hour (Viking)

Richard Flanagan (Australian) — The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Chatto & Windus)

Karen Joy Fowler (US) — We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (Serpent’s Tail)

Howard Jacobson (British) — J (Jonathan Cape)

Neel Mukherjee (British) — The Lives of Others (Chatto & Windus)

Ali Smith (British) — How to be Both (Hamish Hamilton)

I’m currently in the process of reading all the nominees. I’d already read the Fowler, which I reviewed here. It’s my favourite book of 2013 and I’m looking forward to discussing it on the next episode of Writer and the Critic.

I’ve just finished Neel Mukherjee’s The Lives of Others. It’s an eye opening, confronting and at times angry novel set in India during the late 60s and early 70s. Told through the eyes of the Ghosh family, it’s a book that has something to say about India, about social change, about revolution without you ever feeling that it’s preaching or trying to sell you a message. I thought it was a little long, but overall I highly recommended it.

I’m currently a quarter of the way through the Flanagan which is very good. So, based on 2 and a quarter books I’d say this is a pretty strong short list.

Having said that J by Howard Jacobson, the one clear genre novel on the list, has been praised by mainstream critics while being panned by people I respect in the genre. As a result I can’t wait to read it.