Well, after Sarah Waters ghost story The Little Stranger was placed on the long list for the Booker prize, to my surprise, I decided I had to find out what all this was about, so went ahead and read this one. 1998, and it is a hell of a good book, if surprisingly bawdy and explicit. Nan's life, from an oyster girl in Victorian Whitstable, to her days on the music hall stage, to her time as a kept girl of a wealthy woman of varied and unusual tastes, was extraordinary reading, and I understand why she has the reputation as a writer that she does. I still don't see nominating The Little Stranger as one of the 13 best books of the year, but if there's any taking into account other works by the same writer, she should certainly win something, at any rate.
Man Booker Prize Long List
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
Summertime by J.M Coetzee
The Quickening Time by Adam Foulds
How to Paint A Dead Man by Sarah Hall
The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey
Me Cheeta by James Lever
Me Cheeta by James Lever
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
Not Untrue and Not Unkind by Ed O'Loughlin
Helopolis by James Scudamore
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Love and Summer by William Trevor
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