Four out of six not bad, and I'm not even dreadfully disappointed by the inclusions at the expense of my choices.
In the end I was having a huge three-way argument with myself over Docx-Eng-McEwan and finally Docx won on sheer scope and control.But we love less is more here so no complaints and congratulations to Mohsin Hamid too.
But all that aside I'm truly, madly, deeply and a bit wildly excited for Nicola Barker, Anne Enright, Lloyd Jones and Indra Sinha in particular because I loved each of those books with a passion and knew instantly that they would be on my shortlist.
So the final decision on October 16th will be an unusual one for me, possibly a first, because there's nothing on this shortlist that would have me groaning if it won.John Sutherland's timely and perceptive piece in The Independent last weekend (thanks to Kirsty for the heads up) finally resolving any lingering and frankly misplaced prejudices I may have been harbouring about one book in particular.
So at last we can put The Booker Prize to bed for a few weeks and read something else and I have some real treats in store.


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