Over in the UK, the Man Booker prize, open to authors of the Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland. The award is £50,000 to the winner and £2,500 to each of the finalists. All finalists receive special printed editions of their book. This year, the finalists hail from Australia, South Africa, England and Canada.
Some of the finalists have been previously nominated. Peter Carey is no stranger to the Man Booker Prize. Not only was he shortlisted in 1985 for Illywahacker, but, in 1988 he won for Oscar and Lucinda and in 2001 he won again for True History of the Kelly Gang. Click here to our guide for this award winning novel. If Carey wins this year he will make history as the only author to have won the Man Booker Prize three times. Damon Galgut is also familiar with the Man Booker Prize; in 2003 he was shortlisted for The Good Doctor. Howard Jacobson has had his novels longlisted in 2002 for Who’s Sorry Now? and again in 2006 for Kalooki Nights.
Enter our contest with your suggestions! Every entry will receive a $5.00 gift coupon for any Bookclub-in-a-Box product. A special Man Booker draw will be held on Tuesday, October 12th. If your guess matches the winning book, we will send you our unique Bookclub-in-a-Box coffee mug. That way you can enjoy a hot drink while reading your novel.
See below for the complete list of finalists.
Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber and Faber)
Emma Donoghue Room (Picador – Pan Macmillan)
Damon Galgut In a Strange Room (Atlantic Books – Grove Atlantic)
Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury)
Andrea Levy The Long Song (Headline Review – Headline Publishing Group)
Tom McCarthy C (Jonathan Cape – Random House)
The winner will be announced on 12 October 2010 in London.
You may have noticed that Canadian Emma Donohue, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for her novel, Room, is missing from the Scociabank Giller Prize longlist. How could this be? Room is a critically acclaimed best seller. Was it simply overlooked? Also missing from this list is the notable Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco, and Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel. This is not the 
first time Yann Martel has been disregarded by the Giller. Life of Pi, a Man Booker Prize winner was never nominated for the Giller prize. See here for our wonderful discussion guide to Life of Pie and look forward to our upcoming review of Illustrado. An interesting note, Three Day Road was also overlooked by the Giller Prize, however, it went on to win The Rogers Writer’s Trust Fiction Prize. Another Roger Writer’s Trust Fiction Prize winner who was ignored by the Gillers is Lawrence Hill’s Book of Negroes. Our discussion guide reaffirms why this novel is winner.
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I would vote for Howard Jabobson’s “The Finkler Question.”
It has wide appeal. It engages a reader of any age. I, and I’m sure most people, can identify with characters who feel angst, joy, guilt and regret at what they have done, where they have been, what could have been…wonderfully written.