Quite exciting that Manchester now has incumbent Nobel Prize and Man Booker Prize winners. Well, kind of. The Nobel Prize winners are Dutch and Russian, and saying Howard Jacobson is a Manchester author is a bit like saying Oasis were a Manchester band: they may have been born and educated here but as soon as London called, they were off. But anyway, I'm pleased a comic novel has finally won the Booker, even if I think Paul Murray's longlisted Skippy Dies - which I really loved - definitely suffered by Jacobson's presence. Two comic novels on the shortlist would probably have been too much. Spending the last two weeks on holiday has allowed me to catch up with some of the other books on the list though, and I have to say In A Strange Room by Damon Galgut is just fantastic.
If you're holidaying anywhere in the next few months, this is the book to pack - a meditation on not just why we travel but what we remember years later. It was never going to win the Booker because a) it's really three short stories and b) it's not really clear whether it's actually fiction at all. But I'm glad it was shortlisted as that was the final shove I needed to buy it. I'm in Greece, and the first exchanges are in Greece. It all came together in a really affecting read and I will be busy spending autumn recommending it to whoever will listen. But maybe it's just because I love South African authors, too...
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