And the winner is...

The 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction has been awarded to Howard Jacobson for his novel The Finkler Question.

From the press release.

"London author and columnist Howard Jacobson has been longlisted twice for the prize, in 2006 for Kalooki Nights and in 2002 for Who's Sorry Now, but has never before been shortlisted.

The Finkler Question is a novel about love, loss and male friendship, and explores what it means to be Jewish today.

Said to have ‘some of the wittiest, most poignant and sharply intelligent comic prose in the English language', The Finkler Question has been described as ‘wonderful' and ‘richly satisfying' and as a novel of ‘full of wit, warmth, intelligence, human feeling and understanding'."

Reserve The Finkler Question here.

Ashburton booktalk - 10 February.

If you missed the first booktalk for 2010 here is a list of the books we talked about...

Jane

WOODSWORTH, Nicholas.
Seeking Provence : old myths, new paths.
944.9 WOO

MALOUF, David.
Ransom.
FIC MALOU

ATWOOD, Margaret.
Penelopiad.
FIC ATWOO
LP FIC ATWOO

GREENWOOD, Kerry.
Forbidden fruit.
FIC GREEN


Jo

NIFFENEGGER, Audrey.
Her fearful symmetry.
FIC NIFFE

McGIRR, Michael.
The lost art of sleep.
154.6 MACG

SEBESTYEN, Victor.
Revolution 1989 : the fall of the Soviet empire.
947.0854 SEB


Ros

KENNEDY, Cate.
The world beneath.
FIC KENNE.

RUIZ, Carlos Zafon.
The angel's game.
FIC RUIZ

THEORIN, Johan.
The darkest room.
FIC THEOR

WILKINSON, Giselle.
The conscious cook : sustainable cooking and living.
641.563 WIL