The Man Booker panel of judges has released the shortlist for the prestigious prize. You can read free samples of all the books at this link. Librarians can follow this link for free downloadable posters about the award. Here are the shortlisted books:
Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books)
Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories/Faber & Faber)
Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies (Fourth Estate)
Alison Moore, The Lighthouse (Salt)
Will Self, Umbrella (Bloomsbury)
Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis (Faber & Faber)
Judicial chair Peter Stothard had this statement: “After re-reading an extraordinary longlist of twelve, it was the pure power of prose that settled most debates. We loved the shock of language shown in so many different ways and were exhilarated by the vigour and vividly defined values in the six books that we chose – and in the visible confidence of the novel’s place in forming our words and ideas.”
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In between coverage of the Phillies (glowing) and the Eagles (tepid), the Philadelphia Inquirer's books section ran a terrific review of Peter Stothard's ON THE SPARTACUS ROAD this weekend. Penned by Frank Wilson, the paper's former book review editor, the review really captures what we feel to be the spirit of this book. Click here to read the review in its entirety, or scroll down for a few excellent excerpts.
Peter Stothard's account of his journey along that road makes for an extraordinary book...
It is indeed "a classicist's notebook," and it is this, more than anything, that makes it so extraordinary. Time, for Stothard, is less a linear continuum than a palimpsest.
...
By the time one has finished Spartacus Road, one has learned just about all there is to know about the slave leader, his victories, and his final defeat - his body was never found. One also has learned about a good deal else besides, from Frontinus the aqueduct maker to the poet Statius and his epic Thebaid to the word latifundia, "first used in the time of Pliny for giant sparsely populated tracts."
But what one learns of most of all is a sensibility, all too rare these days, that enables someone like Peter Stothard to sense how, at least in certain locales, the distant past interpenetrates the present and immeasurably enriches it.
"Returning to old books," Stothard says in his prologue, "is like returning to old friends." Anyone who becomes acquainted with this book is bound to find himself making one return visit after another.
Happy Monday to you all, and safe travels back this week from Frankfurt from any of you who were lucky enough to be there!
New in bookstores this month is Spartacus Road: A Journey through Ancient Italy by Peter Stothard. Stothard, editor of The Times Literary Supplement, re-traces the remarkable journey taken by Spartacus and his army of rebels in the final century of the first Roman Republic. The result is a book like none other -- at once a journalist's notebook, a classicist's celebration, a survivor's record of a near fatal cancer and the history of a unique and brutal war. Sothard illuminates conflicting memories of times ancient and modern, and tells one of the greatest stories of all ages. Sweepingly erudite and strikingly personal, Spartacus Road is non-fiction writing of the highest order.
The Spartacus Road is the route along which the rebel slave Spartacus and his army repeatedly outfought the Roman legions between 73 and 71 B.C., bringing both fears and hopes that have never wholly left the modern mind. While most of the historical evidence of the life and career of Spartacus is missing, his struggle has proven inspirational to many modern literary and political writers, making Spartacus a folk hero among cultures both ancient and modern. As he travels along the Spartacus road centuries later, Stothard brings us back to an ancient world which confronted many of the same issues we face today - the perils of religious belief, the comfort of organized religion, the virtues of public life. With great clarity and insight, Stothard breathes new life into the story of Spartacus and the greatest slave war in antiquity. He tells it, definitively, for our time.
Early Praise for Spartacus Road:
“Peter Stothard’s account of his journey in the footsteps of Spartacus’s army is not just a travel book, but also a memoir of surviving cancer. An intriguing book that is impossible to categorize... Stothard's real passion is for the process of thinking about Spartacus, both for the Ancients and for us...compelling.” - Times (UK)
“'Haunting, erudite and beautifully written...a fusion of memoir, history and travelogue that is unlike any other book ever written about Spartacus and all the more precious for being quite so unexpected” – The Spectator
“A wonderfully rich and endlessly thought-provoking brew...reminiscent of the writing of W.G. Sebald...Beautifully written, musing and far-sighted...it's an astounding success.” --Literary Review
