Booker shortlist 2008.

Dion Frost

13 September 2008

The shortlist for this year's Booker Prize for Fiction has been declared. Here's a quick guide to the 6 writers who made the grade. He could be a previous reporter for Time mag and has written for the Independent, and the Sun. Times.

The White Tiger, a story of 2 Indias, tells the tale of Balram, the boy of a rickshaw puller in the heartlands. It charts his journey from working in a teashop to entrepreneurial success. His novel A Long Long Way was shortlisted for the Booker in 2005. The Secret Scripture, told thru the books of Roseanne McNulty and her psychiatrist, is the story about a life blighted by mistreatment - and yet still marked by love and hope - in 1930s Sligo. Thru the haze of memory, Roseanne's story acts as an alternative, secret history of Eire . Sea of Poppies, the 1st volume of his Ibis Trilogy, throws together a various cast of Indians - from a widowed villager to an evangelical British opium merchant - at a time of colonial upheaval. She was shortlisted for the Booker for 2002's Still Here. The Garments On Their Backs follows the tale of Vivien, a sensitive, bookish girl whose slum owner uncle, Sandor, is inexplicably unwelcome in her folks' home. Years after, after her hubby has snuffed i and Sandor has served time in jail, their trails cross - giving Vivien the opportunity to learn the truth about her folks history. His novel The Mulberry Empire made the longlist for the Booker in 2002, whilst Kitchen Venom won the Somerset Maughn Award. The Northern Indulgence , set in Sheffield, tells the tale of 2 families living thru the Thatcher age. The nearby buddies are among a big cast of characters whose lives are played out over decades, offering a picture of Britain's social landscape. His sundry career saw him work as a non-public investigator, British teacher and screenwriter. Classic novel A Fragment of the entire meanders thru the life of the dysfunctional Jasper Dean and details his relationship with his odd-ball dad. The book, that has drawn comparisons with underground classic The Confederacy of Dunces, covers a multitude of whimsical journeys from strip clubs to asylums.