Quite a varied year with crime-Maigret and Bosch yet again-biography, a session of Evelyn Waugh, a couple of books by Thomas Mann and a couple by Salman Rushdie and a record attempt at the Booker longlist where I managed 12 out of 13!
The Booker list this year was the best for a while. The winner was unusual, funny at times but definitely not my favorite. I really liked Elmet and home fire. I liked Autumn by Alis Smith and Exit West by Moshin Hammad, not to mention Swing Time and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, but I think my favorite of the crop was Resevoir 13 by Jon McGregor which charts the circle of life as the years roll by in a village in Northern England.
For the others, Waugh was very funny but poignant too examining Britain around the wars of the last century, and Thomas Mann was a great family saga and the beautiful Death in Venice. However, I think my absolute favorite of the year was Salman Rushdie's Satanic verses. I love the breadth of his imagination and his use of language.
On the non-fiction side I think the prize must go to Claire Tomalin's biography of Thomas Hardy.
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