Booker shortlist 2007
The shortlist announced yesterday:
Darkmans, by Nicola Barker
On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan
Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones
Animal's People, by Indra Sinha
The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid
The Gathering, by Anne Enright
I'm rather excited about Nicola Barker's Darkmans. Just collected the huge tome a few days back, from Kino, having ordered/booked it since June. The hardback is a hefty over-800 pages, and surprising - and very pleasantly - the paper is not those rough re-cycled yellowish kind but smooth, heavy and white. The staff there told me the store acquired only just one copy, mine. I know for a fact the other big stores around town didn't have Darkmans; I enquired. If Darkmans wins this coming October, Kino is definitely ordering more. More likely, as it's officially Booker-shorlisted, Kino has surely got to stock copies soon. And good for buyers but bad fo me is, Kino would probably give Darkmans a 20 or 30 % off for the coming new stock; meaning I could have saved 18 to 19 Ringgit!! It's like when I bought Ian McEwan's Saturday as a full-priced-no-20%-off hardback, and a month later I saw fresh copies, after his shortlist, offered at 30% off!
