darningneedle Forums

Geder · Site Admin Joined: 01 Jan 1970 Posts: 4414

<div><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/94889?ns=guardian&pageName=Books%3A+A+cutting-edge+shortlist+for+the+Costa+book+awards&ch=Books&c3=guardian.co.uk&c4=Books%2CCulture+section%2CCosta+book+awards&c5=Not+commercially+useful&c6=Claire+Armitstead&c7=2008_11_18&c8=1119818&c9=article&c10=GU&c11=Books&c12=blog&c13=&c14=Books+blog&h2=GU%2FBooks%2Fblog%2FBooks+blog" width="1" height="1" /></div><p>If your first thought was that this year's Costa <a href="http://www.costabookawards.com/">shortlist for best novel</a> looks rather white, male and middle-aged, then your second should perhaps be that this is itself a novelty these days. Literary prize juries have given so much attention to the first novel in the last few years that one has to be grateful to the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/costabookaward">Costa</a> for its quaint habit of separating them off into a category of their own, thus clearing a path to more experienced novelists. </p><p>The fact that they're experienced doesn't mean that they're no longer at the cutting edge. One of this year's big themes, for instance, has been psychotherapy, and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jul/20/fiction3">Patrick McGrath</a>, described by one critic as "our foremost exponent of the neurogothic", is in the forefront with Trauma, his novel of a New York shrink struggling to deal with his own and history's demons. </p><p>Likewise, Louis de Bernières's chamber novel, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/mar/01/fiction.louisdebernieres">A Partisan's Daughter</a>, may be confined to a London housing co-op in the late 70s, but it packs into it a moving account of the background to Yugoslavia's breakdown, as revealed through a series of conversations between a bored travelling salesman and a Serbian former prostitute. It's a reminder that, whatever form he chooses, De Bernières is one of the least parochial novelists writing in English today.</p><p>Sebastian Barry — best known as a playwright before this year — is now familiar as the man who, according to at least two judges, should have won the Booker for The Secret Scripture. </p><p>But perhaps the most exciting inclusion on this list is Chris Cleave, whose first novel, Incendiary, paid the price of being just too on-the-button (framed as a letter from a North London mother to Osama bin Laden after her husband and son have been killed in a suicide bombing at Arsenal football stadium, it was published on 7/7). What looked then like a tricksy coincidence appears, in the context of his second novel, as a refreshing willingness to confront big stories head on. The Other Hand sweeps from Nigeria to Kingston-upon-Thames, unpacking a load of liberal guilt as it goes. A second novel in line for one of the major prizes of the year — now there's a story!</p><div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/costabookaward">Costa book awards</a></li></ul></div><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html">More Feeds</a>
<p><a href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/982p1GcBluAVEk4KeAStxQJm1Fk/a"><img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/982p1GcBluAVEk4KeAStxQJm1Fk/i" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>

Read more...