Booker Prize Predictions

The Man Booker longlist will be announced tomorrow. The Omnivore turns literary tipster as we try to predict who’s in the running for this year’s prize…

(Click on the title to read our review roundups.)

Old guard

THE STRANGER’S CHILD by Alan Hollinghurst

Alan Hollinghurst won the 2004 Booker Prize with The Line of Beauty. His latest novel has had (mostly) excellent reviews, and he looks set to make the longlist at the very least.

THE FORGOTTEN WALTZ by Anne Enright (won 2007, The Gathering)

LAST MAN IN TOWER by Aravind Adiga (won 2008, The White Tiger)

WISH YOU WERE HERE by Graham Swift (won 1996, Last Orders)

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Booker bridesmaids

THERE BUT FOR THE by Ali Smith

Ali Smith has narrowly missed out twice, being shortlisted in 2001 for and in 2005 for The Accidental. Could it be third time lucky?

KING OF THE BADGERS by Philip Hensher (shortlisted 2008, The Northern Clemency)

ON CANAAN’S SIDE by Sebastian Barry (shortlisted 2008, The Secret Scripture)

WE HAD IT SO GOOD by Linda Grant (shortlisted 2008, The Clothes on Their Backs)

THE SENSE OF AN ENDING by Julian Barnes (shortlisted 1984, Flaubert’s Parrot)

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Young pretenders

EMBASSYTOWN by China Miéville

Will sci-fi finally get its moment? If so, there can be no stronger candidate than China Miéville, one of those rare writers who’s managed to escape the confines of “genre” fiction.

WATERLINE by Ross Raisin

GILLESPIE AND I by Jane Harris

HALF OF THE HUMAN RACE by Anthony Quinn

PURE by Andrew Miller

THE LONDON TRAIN by Tessa Hadley

THE GOOD MUSLIM by Tahmima Anam

A SUMMER OF DROWNING by John Burnside

THE FREE WORLD by David Bezmozgis

CITY OF BOHANE by Kevin Barry

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Check back on Wednesday to see how wrong we were. And in the meantime here are last year’s longlist and shortlist.

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