Tag Archives | booker prize winner

The Sense of an Ending, explained

2 May 2012 · Reading · Comments { 22 }

First, some background: last year I wrote a review of The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. I had a lot of comments from people who didn’t understand the ending, and since then I’ve been inundated with people searching for things like “Sense of an Ending explained”. I felt bad, because my original review [...]

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“The Sea” by John Banville

10 November 2010 · Reading · Comments { 2 }

John Banville is a magnificent prose writer. I loved his earlier book Birchwood, so thought I would try out The Sea, which won him the Booker Prize in 2005. I liked it, but did feel a little bit disappointed. The writing was still beautiful. The blurb on the cover from the Daily Telegraph was not [...]

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“Last Orders” by Graham Swift

13 August 2010 · Reading · Comments { 0 }

In a way, the plot of Last Orders is very simple: a group of friends drive to the coast to scatter the ashes of their friend Jack. Yes, that’s it. Along the way they have arguments and fights and endless pints of beer, but none of that is really the point. The real action of [...]

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“The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga

2 December 2009 · Reading · Comments { 0 }

I didn’t like this book when I started it. Even when I was browsing it in the bookshop, I wasn’t that keen – I only bought it because it was half-price and it had won the Booker Prize. Surprising, then, that it ended up being one of the best books I’ve read in recent months. [...]

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“Life of Pi” by Yann Martel

9 May 2009 · Reading · Comments { 1 }

I’ve heard good things about this book for ages, ever since it won the Booker Prize back in 2002, but for some reason I always resisted reading it. Perhaps it’s because I tend to prefer books that stay quite close to reality, and the premise of this one – a 16-year-old boy called Pi travels [...]

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