The Lost Man Booker Prize Shortlist

An email arrived during this week announcing the shortlist of novels for the ‘lost year’, 1970, when the Man Booker Prize was not awarded at all. It was early days for the prize back then and due to adjustments in how and when they selected the shortlist, 1970 came and went without any novels being chosen.

I was thrilled to see that of the six books chosen for the shortlist, two are written by Australians; Shirley Hazzard for The Bay of Noon and Patrick White for The Vivisector.

Margaret, the owner of my favourite book shop, Bookoccino in Avalon, Sydney, says that the Man Booker Prize always rates as one of, if not the prize, that her customers eagerly follow every year. It has such a reputation for picking wonderful novels that become enduring favourites.

I know that in my book club there hasn’t been a year when we haven’t read the prize winner, and maybe one or two of the shortlisted books. Just quickly I can think of my favourites - The Remains of the Day, Oscar and Lucinda, Hotel du Lac, The Ghost Road and The English Patient.

The winner of the ‘lost year’ will be chosen by international readers’ choice so if you’d like to be a literary judge then here’s your chance to place your vote online before 23 April 2010.

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