Book News
Man Booker shortlist.
The six shortlisted authors competing for this year’s Man Booker Prize have been announced. The winner will be revealed in London on Oct. 12. The authors and their books are:
Peter Carey, “Parrot and Oliver in America,” a look at American history through the eyes of two main characters.
Emma Donoghue, “Room,” the story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.
Damon Galgut, “In a Strange Room,” a tale of longing and thwarted desire, rage and compassion.
Howard Jacobson, “The Finkler Question”: a story of friendship and loss, exclusion and belonging.
Andrea Levy, “The Long Song”: set in Jamaica during the last years of slavery and the early years of freedom.
Tom McCarthy, “C,” The novel follows the short, intense life of Serge Carrefax, a man who surges into the electric modernity of the early 20th century.
First Lines
Between Summer’s Longing and Winter’s End, by Leif GW Persson
It was Charlie, age thirteen, who saved the life of Vindel, age fifty-five. At least that’s how Vindel described it at the preliminary police hearing.
“If Charlie hadn’t looked up and pulled me to the side, that damn thing would’ve hit me right in the skull and I wouldn’t be sitting here now.
It was a peculiar story right from the start, for three reasons.
First, Charlie was thought to be deaf in both ears. Not least by Vindel himself, who was convinced that the only things Charlie understood nowadays were eye contact, sign language, and physical touch. It’s true that Vindel talked with him more than ever, but that’s only to be expected when someone you liked grew old and slowed down, and Vindel had always been kind to Charlie. Just what you would expect.
Second, it is a long-established axiom in Western physics that a free-falling body precedes the sound that said body produces by friction against the surrounding atmosphere. Thus, according to said physics, there would have been no noticeable sound whatsoever.
Third, and this is the most remarkable. If Charlie had heard something, noticed the danger, pulled Vindel aside, and thereby saved his life . . . why didn’t he hear the sound of the victim’s left shoe, which, only a few seconds later, struck him right in the neck and killed him on the spot?
Audio Best Sellers
Fiction
1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson, read by Simon Vance
2. Swimsuit, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, read by Christian Rummel
3. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson, read by Simon Vance
4. The Girl Who Played With Fire, by Stieg Larsson, read by Simon Vance
5. Private, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, read by Peter Hermann
Nonfiction
1. Flyboys, by James Bradley, read by the author
2. Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, read by the author
3. The Big Short, by Michael Lewis, read by Jesse Boggs
4. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, read by the author
5. Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, read by the author
