Here are the thirteen longlisted titles:

• Peter Carey: Parrot and Olivier in America (available now)
• Emma Donaghue: Room (available September 13)
• Helen Dunmore: The Betrayal (availability in U.S. unknown)
• Damon Galgut: In a Strange Room (available on Kindle only; other U.S. availability unknown)
• Howard Jacobson: The Finkler Question (availability in U.S. unknown)
• Andrea Levy: The Long Song (available now)
• Tom McCarthy: C (available September 7)
• David Mitchell: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (available now)
• Lisa Moore: February (available now)
• Paul Murray: Skippy Dies (available August 31)
• Rose Tremain: Trespass (available October 18)
• Christos Tsiolkas: The Slap (available now)
• Alan Warner: The Stars in the Bright Sky (availability in U.S. unknown)

At this point I have read only two: Parrot and Olivier in America and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, both expected to make the longlist easily, though I thought both of them less than wonderful, if good in some ways.  I don’t know how involved I’ll get this year.  I have Lisa Moore’s February, so I’ll get to that one.  McCarthy’s  C on its way from Knopf.  I’m tempted to order the rest from the Book Depository, but we’ll see.

Happy Booker Season to all!

I appreciate everyone who entered the contest, and I especially thank you all for your kind words of well-wishing on my two-year anniversary.  It’s been a lot of fun and much of that is due to your reading, commenting, and support.  This is a great community.  So . . .

A copy of Roberto Bolano’s Amulet goes to Selena who writes at Like Glass – congrats!  Now I expect you to comment more :)

A copy of Robert Walser’s Microscripts goes to Isabel who writes at Books and Other Stuff — congrats too!  Isabel has been a very welcome presence on this blog since its earliest days.  Thanks!

Emails are going out to Selena and Isabel.

First, Robert Walser’s Microscripts.  I have an unread copy still in its shrinkwrap.

Last year I read and completely enjoyed Walser’s The Tanners.  It is a classic book that finally made its way to the English language with the help of New Directions Publishing and through the wonderful talents of Susan Bernofsky.  I recommend it completely.  A month or so ago, New Directions released another Walser collection, Microscripts.  Walser developed a minute script he used so he could write stories on any found paper lying around.  An entire story might find itself on a postcard,  or a ticket stub, whatever was there.  For years the script was thought indecipherable, but through years of diligent scholarship and scrutiny, these texts were produced in intelligible German.  Again through the talents of Susan Bernofsky, these short stories are available to us. 

But this book is more than just text.  New Directions, with its usual high standards of publishing has created a beautiful book (it also just released the gloriously produced Nox by Anne Carson, which I hope to review soon).  This is hardbound and contains complete color scans of the original microscripts in their original size.  So we get to see that business card Walser wrote on and his tiny script.  On the facing page is the translation.  At the back of the book, along with an essay by Walter Benjamin, are the German translations of the text.

I’m afraid that I can’t offer an opinion on the stories themselves because I haven’t read most of them, but what I’ve sampled is quirky and astoundingly intricate.

Second, Roberto Bolaño’s Amulet.  I have an extra unread paperback edition for someone.

New Directions is also the publisher behind this giveaway.  Over the past few years they’ve steadily released Bolaño’s work for us, and I’m always anxious to see what’s next.  This is one of the ones I haven’t read yet.  I’ve been saving this book for a bit of a dry spell.  Several trusted sources claim it is one of his best, and since I don’t have many more of his works to read, I’ve been saving it — but not for too much longer.  Perhaps whoever wins my extra copy of Amulet will accompany me in a read-along when the time comes.

Now, imagine I have two hats, one for Walser and one for Bolaño.  To win, leave a comment below indicating which hat  you’d like to throw your name in.  You can, by the way, through your name in each hat if you’re interested in both titles, though you will only be allowed to win one of them.  So your chances of winning will go up since you’ll put your name in each of the two hats.  However, your name won’t be entered to the same hat twice, so multiple comments be counted (though you can certainly leave multiple comments about the books or the process or whatever).

I will draw the two winners on this Friday, July 9.  Since I’m not sure when I’ll do the drawing, whether early that day or late, please feel free to enter until I’ve announced the winners.

Bakker is not playing with body doubles here.  He is not even, not really, playing with redemption of any kind.  These are damaged, tired people.  As painful as it is, it’s a wonderous experience to dwell with them for a time.

That is all just my impressions from the reviews I’ve read.  The reviews have left such a strong impression upon me that I don’t think I could force my way into this one.

I think Troubles is an excellent choice.  I might have voted for it myself, had I voted.  I might have voted had there been a bit more time to get through the books.  That was one of my major problems with this award: for most, there was too little time to read all six books, particularly given that two were fairly large.

• Rosie Alison: The Very Thought of You
• Barbara Kingsolver: The Lacuna
• Attica Locke: Black Water Rising
• Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall
• Lorrie Moore: A Gate at the Stairs
• Monique Roffey: The White Woman on the Green Bicycle

I haven’t read any of these yet, and for the near future (well, relatively near) I only plan to read Wolf Hall, which, because it has already been picking up loads of awards, must be the favorite here.  I’ve heard much too much bad about The Lacuna and The Gate at the Stairs to make me want to read them, but they keep getting positive publicity too.  The other three I haven’t looked into.  Does anyone have a prediction?

• Brodeck’s Report, by Philippe Claudel, translated from the French by John Cullen
• The Blind Side of the Heart, by Julia Franck, translated from the German by Anthea Bell
• Fists, by Pietro Grossi, translated from the Italian by Howard Curtis
• Broken Glass, by Alain Manbanckou, translated from the French by Helen Stevenson
• The Dark Side of Love, by Rafik Schami, translated from the German by Anthea Bell
• Chowringhee, by Sankar, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha

Winner:  Tinkers by Paul Harding

Finalists:  Love in Infant Monkeys by Lydia Millet and In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin.  For a review of In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, check out this one from KevinfromCanada.

I haven’t even heard of Tinkers.  Or Love in Infant Monkeys, for that matter.  Time to look them up.