Creeping into the Man Booker Prize Longlist for 2008 is...

... a crime fiction novel.  It's the one in bold below.

Aravind Adiga              The White Tiger                                 
Gaynor Arnold             Girl in a Blue Dress                           
Sebastian Barry           The Secret Scripture                         
John Berger                 From A to X                                        
Michelle de Kretser      The Lost Dog                                     
Amitav Ghosh              Sea of Poppies                                  
Linda Grant                 The Clothes on Their Backs             
Mohammed Hanif         A Case of Exploding Mangoes         
Philip Hensher             The Northern Clemency                    
Joseph O'Neill              Netherland                                        
Salman Rushdie          The Enchantress of Florence           
Tom Rob Smith          Child 44                          
Steve Toltz                   A Fraction of the Whole

Tom Rob Smith certainly seems to be taking the world by storm with Child 44.  He recently won the CWA's Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2008 and now finds himself on the Man Booker Prize longlist.

Comments

[crimeficreader]

I should change the title of this post to "The Aussie Post". Thanks ladies, all, for your comments.

Katherine: great to meet you too and thanks for the short notice babysitting of my Deaver copy for signing! I'll be in touch soon.

Kerrie and Karen: It's interesting that Toltz's novel is up for a Kelly in Aus when compared to UK reaction to date (in MSM). From what I can ascertain thus far, no one has suggested it is crime fiction and reviewers seem to believe it defies any sort of categorisation. Tom Rob Smith's inclusion on the longlist for Child 44 is causing a stir, a bit of brouhaha and who knows, maybe eventually a bonfire of literary vanities? To write in a genre doesn't have enough depth apparently. To write a thriller is to write a thriller, end of case for the prosecution, apparently.

I read the opening chapter last night and I'm impressed so far. Many refer to the horror of a the death of a cat, but these are people who, in my mind, seek no depth. Yes, the opening chapter has the death of a cat, but it's more about an extreme state of desperation, deprivation and poverty for human beings, where there is little hope of even hope, let alone some control over their own lives. Extreme circumstances, yes. But real ones as experienced many years ago by many under Stalin's regime. You could hit a history text book to get this, but it would not portray the vivid reality that comes from the fiction of Tom Rob Smith. I intend to say more on this later in a post.

I'll also do more research on Toltz. The list is interesting and, for the first time in a long time, it's garnered the attention of those who don't particularly like literary fiction and those who gave up on the Booker some years ago. Here we have some excitement in 2008. Finally. Let's see what happens.

[Karen C]

Also note Steve Toltz's A Fraction of the Whole which has also recently been shortlisted in the CWA Ned Kelly Awards for best First Crime Fiction novel :)

[Katherine Howell]

Hi crimeficreader, great to meet you at Harrogate! It's exciting to see this novel on the Booker list. I bought it and had it signed by Smith at the festival (after discussing with my publisher whether it really was him and not Chris Martin from Coldplay - deadset, his photo looks a little bit like Martin but in real life it's a tough pick!), and started reading on the way home. Incredible book!
Talk to you soon,
cheers,
Katherine.

[Kerrie Smith]

Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole, has today been shortlisted for the Ned Kelly best first crime fiction award - so I guess that makes 2 from the crime fiction genre
I've listed all the Ned Kelly shortlisters over on my blog.