From The Independent
Are there literary prizes for men only? So why, in this day and age, this discrimination? Can we also have prizes for hairy men with beards, then? Or humans under five-six, barring tall people like Margaret Atwood. (They are too good anyway.) Or ... never mind.
Anyway Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss is in the list. (Boy does she need a leg up; afterall she has only won the - totally sexist - 'Man' Booker so far.
Then there is a book on the shortlist supposedly written in 'bad' English by a Chinese author, Xiaolu Guo, 33, titled A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, described as a romantic comedy. I have not having read the book yet, but I live in dread if seeing a flood of half baked manuscripts written in bad Manglish, Singlish and Honglish.
This year's list features writers from India, Britain, Nigeria, China and the United States.
The winner will be announced on 6 June 2007.
THE SHORTLIST
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun
Rachel Cusk - Arlington Park
Kiran Desai - The Inheritance of Loss
Xiaolu Guo - A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
Jane Harris - The Observations
Anne Tyler - Diggings to America
Full story: http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/news/article2458816.ece#2007-04-18T00:00:00-00:00
