Man Booker Prize Shortlist

According to the Guardian, the shortlisted novels for the Man Booker Prize are:

• The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
• Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (linking to Amazon UK for this one, as I can't find it in this country!)
• Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
• Snowdrops by AD Miller

It figures that they'd select the book I disliked most.  It really does seem like the judges were heavy on adventure stories this year.  I'm not surprised to see The Sisters Brothers, because it seemed really different for the list, but Snowdrops does surprise me a bit.  I feel like anyone who has read a book translated from the Russian about post-Soviet Russia has read a similar book, without the expatriate angle.  Perhaps that was the appeal.

The two books on the list that I haven't read won't be available until after the Man Booker Prize is awarded in October.  It doesn't seem fair, but maybe I'll squeeze them in.