Here’s this year’s list and I haven’t read any of them. Not sure why I feel guilty about that… I think it’s just that I’d enjoy this more if I had a horse to pull for in this race.
Aravind Adiga The White Tiger (Atlantic)
Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture (Faber and Faber)
Amitav Ghosh Sea of Poppies (John Murray)
Linda Grant The Clothes on Their Backs (Virago)
Philip Hensher The Northern Clemency (Fourth Estate)
Steve Toltz A Fraction of the Whole (Hamish Hamilton)
A Fraction of the Whole is my favorite book published in 2008.
(I’m now reading books that will publish in 2009, so that will not likely change.) disclaimer: I work for the publisher, but that doesn’t matter. Fraction is one of the most original novels I have read in a very long time.
I haven’t read the others — in fact, I believe that only The White Tiger and the Sebastian Barry are on sale in the right now.