Man Book Prize Shortlist

Okay, I admit I'm very much a genre fiction reader, I'm not into "literary fiction". But I do keep up with publishing industry news, look at the bestseller lists, read Publishers Weekly. And I have to admit I don't recall hearing of any of these six books. Has anyone read them? Are they like the Oprah picks, where you buy it and put it on your coffee table and never read past the first few pages?

International Booker Shortlist Announced
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6594120.html?nid=2286&source=link&rid=
by Kevin Howell -- Publishers Weekly, 9/9/2008

The Man Booker Prize judges have whittled down the long list they announced six weeks ago to six titles competing for the U.K. literary award. The six finalists are:

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Free Press, $24; Tantor audiobook, $34.99; published in the UK by Atlantic)
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (Viking, $24.95; Blackstone audiobook, $19.95; published in the UK by Faber)
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26; Brilliance audiobook, $29.99; published in the UK by John Murray)
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant (Virago Press, $21.49)
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher (releasing in the US on Feb. 24, 2009 from Knopf, $27.95; published in the UK by Fourth Estate)
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz (Spiegel & Grau, $24.95; published in the UK by Hamish Hamilton)

The six finalist authors cover a broad geographic spread with two Indian authors, two English authors, an Australian author and an Irish author. Aravind Adiga and Steve Toltz are first time authors. The shortlist surprised some by ignoring two bestsellers that had made the long list: Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence and Joseph O'Neill's Netherland.

The winner will be announced on October 14.