The only one on the list that was not a winner:Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge (1998)
Ian McEwan won this year for the slight Amsterdam. A real shame.
See the 1998 shortlist here.
As I wrote here, "the interesting angle for me in 1998 was that McEwan published another novel, Enduring Love, and I had a slight preference for it over Amsterdam."
Bainbridge's Every Man For Himself is one of my favorite books by a living author, and The Birthday Boys is also very good.
The Guardian summed up the critical verdict on her work:
As I wrote here, "the interesting angle for me in 1998 was that McEwan published another novel, Enduring Love, and I had a slight preference for it over Amsterdam."
Bainbridge's Every Man For Himself is one of my favorite books by a living author, and The Birthday Boys is also very good.
The Guardian summed up the critical verdict on her work:
She has experimented in many genres - drawing on a Liverpool childhood for her early work, writing a travel book (English Journey) and recently excelling at historical fiction (Every Man For Himself was a brilliant retelling of the Titanic story, The Birthday Boys charted the Scott expedition, Master Georgie follows Liverpudlians in the Crimean War). Overlooked at the beginning of her career, her no-word-wasted style and tight plotting have now won her critical acclaim and a committed following.Click here to read chapter one from Master Georgie, and click here to read news and reviews of Bainbridge's books in the New York Times.
Previous "bad Booker beats":
In praise of David Mitchell
Martyn Goff's bad Booker beat
The Booker Prize's "Henry Fonda" year
On the Booker and other literary prizes
--Marshal Zeringue
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