Thursday, July 10, 2008

Cloud Atlas wins Best of the Rest...

Scott Pack's announced the result of his 'Best of the Rest of the Booker", to find the book chosen from those who DIDN'T win the Booker prize but were shortlisted, and it's Cloud Atlas. Now, there's a surprise - I was on the panel to choose the ten books put forward for the poll, and this one was high up on my list, but I was gunning for Waterland for overall winner. Well, The Underground Man would have been my first choice but that didn't get on the shortlist.

Still a very worthy winner, not least because it should have won the Booker in its year, and I do like Scott's suggestion of cutting up David Mitchell's winning cake and rearranging the pieces. Made me laugh out loud.

You can see and hear David Mitchell talk about the writing process of Cloud Atlas here on Meet the Author.

2 comments:

Kath McGurl said...

Hurray, time Cloud Atlas got the recognition it deserved! In my opinion, had it won the Booker that year, it would also have been a strong contender for the Best of the Booker. I have never been so bowled over by a book as I was with that one. Liked The Line of Beauty (which won in CA's year) but it should have been the bridesmaid, not the bride.

jem said...

I was very pleased that this won. I loved this novel. And 'number9dream' and I am teasing myself before I let myself read 'Ghostwritten' because then I might have to wait till he writes something else as good. (I thought 'Black Swan Green' was only ok). I don't often feel so excited by literature as when I read David Mitchell. I'm not a great fan of excitement generally, but for him I make an exception!