The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beaumont

This novel is exactly the sort of novel I love to read: it's witty, self-referential, aware of its own status as a novel, and a lot of fun. Egon Loeser is the painfully self-absorbed anti-hero whose world is crumbling around him (he's an artist in Berlin in the 1920s)--but he doesn't see the political dangers because of his personal problems (an inability to get his show produced or to win over the charming Adele Hitler [no relation to Adolf]). He serendipitously leaves Berlin for Los Angeles (via Paris) chasing Adele, but he doesn't have any better luck in either place either with Adele or with his show. Yet, as the novel progresses, we learn more and more about Loeser's obsession with Adriano Lavinci, an Italian set designer who died in what is known as the Teleportation Accident (one of Lavinci's sets destroyed a theater in Paris). The novel teases readers: was Lavinci a theatrical genius, or a scientist centuries ahead of his time, or a magician? I definitely want to re-read this book; it may have been my favorite entry on the 2012 Booker Long List.

Philida by André Brink

This book tells the story of an enslaved woman on the brink of freedom who finds promises unfulfilled, and realizes she must craft her own identity and search for her own destiny. It was a lovely story, that gradually unfolds to its full significance. I found the multiple narrators and the care given to small parts of the story (especially Kleinkat) really enhanced my enjoyment. This complicated and uplifting book was longlisted for the 2012 Booker Prize.

The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

I enjoyed this book, which, like its protagonist's journey, slowly circled around to its inevitable conclusion with a steady and misleading pace. Futh, newly separated, visits Germany for a walking holiday after moving out of his family home and before he is to move into a new apartment. As he walks, he remembers his familial traumas (both with his wife and with his childhood family--which his mother abruptly left) and treasures a glass perfume bottle shaped like a lighthouse as a totem. But as Futh returns to Hellhaus (the town and the motel from which his journey started), we slowly realize that Futh, drawn like a moth to a flame, is about to be caught up in a story he never knew he was part of. Shortlisted for the 2012 Booker prize.

Umbrella by Will Self

This complicated novel uses modernist techniques (such as stream-of-consciousness narration, and three distinct narrative threads that intermingle and change with dizzying speed) in order to insist on the continued value of difficulty in reading and the continued difficulty of telling certain types of stories in more conventional ways. Fortunately for the reader, the book presents a brief précis of each time period (Audrey Death's early life to the end of World War I, her encounter with Dr. Zach Busner--who's willing to try new techniques for a certain class of patients--in a mental hospital in 1971, and Dr. Busner's reflections on his practice at that time from the vantage of his (almost contemporary with us) retirement. The book more than repaid its challenges. I particularly enjoyed the playful attention to Audrey's last name. I also thought the World War I story (with its familial betrayals) and the role Dr. Busner played in the treatment of the patients with encephalitis lethargica worked very well together to raise the questions of what we owe each other as human beings, and then to examine the consequences of failing to fulfill these duties. Shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2012.

The Yips by Nicola Barker

This book is a sprawling, funny comedy of manners that manages an ensemble cast very well as it exploits the wild coincidences that occur when a washed-up pro golfer returns to the area where one of his stray balls hurt a bystander when it hit her in the head. I enjoyed the improbable coincidences and the sense of humor that marked this book.

Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

This book is a quirky novel about a family under pressure and on holiday. The stresses on the family's relationships become clear when they find a woman floating in the pool of the home they've rented. She's invited to stay (no room at the inn, as it turns out) and her presence highlights the unhappiness of the rest of the family. The whole book has a surrealistic, dreamlike quality--the point is as much the objects and other descriptions as the plot. Shortlisted for the 2012 Booker prize.

Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil

This book is beautifully written; it requires the reader to relax into the narrative--looking for immediate answers and immediate clarity as to how everything fits in only frustrated me. I really enjoyed following the development of the characters and the sense of place (mostly Bombay in the 1970s, with a diversion into China)--the plot was secondary to me. Shortlisted for the 2012 Booker Prize.

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

This book is a beautiful meditation on art, memory, and forgiveness after great inhumanity. Judge Teoh, the narrator, returns to Yugiri, the Garden of Evening Mists, where she served an apprenticeship many years ago. As she sets down the paths her life has traveled, and attempts to bring the garden--the only Japanese garden in Malaysia--back to order, some of the mysteries of the past are unraveled and she is forced to reassess the choices she's made. I really enjoyed reading this book--it's beautiful and mysterious, and it really makes me appreciate how little of the history of Southeast Asia I know.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

I enjoyed this book much more than I expected to, based on its description. Harold Fry, recently retired, sets off to mail a letter to a work colleague with whom he had lost touch and who has written that she has terminal cancer. But he reaches the postbox much too quickly, and decides to keep walking. After a conversation he has when he stops for a snack, he decides to walk all the way across the island (from southeast England to western Scotland) and deliver the letter personally. During the course of his journey, the familial conflicts that have been haunting Harold slowly unfold, as does the incident that ended his coworker's employment. Although Harold's journey gets slowed up as it gains publicity, and followers, he's not interested in the others' investment in his trip. This book is finally a lyric and moving meditation about how to live after painful losses.

Communion Town by Sam Thompson

This book tells the story of an unnamed, but intricately described, city through the eyes of several of its residents. Even the person of the narration changes from chapter to chapter. The place is all that connects each story to the next--but the city changes in the eyes of each of its beholders. I really enjoyed these stories--they are entertaining in their own rights, and cross many different genres. What links them thematically is the question of what is our humanity, what links us together as people. There's a sense of the city-dwellers' fear of what lurks at night and what lurks below the surface, and I thought that part in particular was very well handled.

Skios by Michael Frayn

I loved this book. It's a really funny story about mistaken identities and mysterious events at a philanthropic house party on a private Greek island. When a mischievous young Brit takes the identity of the older professor scheduled to give the keynote lecture, lots of amusing hijinks ensue. While the whole story is improbable in parts, and definitely interested in being funny, it also gives the two main characters a great chance to reevaluate their lives and why they're pursing the paths they're on. I'm so glad I came upon this book through the Booker longlist.

The Man Booker Prize 2012

Today we get one step closer to the Man Booker Prize--an award for the best book published in the Commonwealth in 2012, at least in the opinion of Sir Peter Stothard, Dinah Birch, Amanda Foreman, Dan Stevens, and Bharat Tandon, this year's judges. They confer today and announce a longlist of about a dozen books. On September 11, they'll announce a shortlist of about six books, and on October 16, they'll announce the winner, who gets £50,000. I don't have many predictions (I tend to use the Booker prize as a reading list), but I wouldn't be surprised if Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel makes it on the list this year.

I try to read all the books on the longlist (not necessarily before October 16--as some of the books may not even be published in the United States by that date). See 2011 (winner: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes) and 2010 (winner: The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson) here. Other Booker-nominated books I've read can be found here. Booker-nominated books I have read but haven't reviewed include: Time's Arrow by Martin Amis (shortlisted, 1991), The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (winner, 2000), The Life of Pi by Yann Martel (winner, 2002), and On Beauty by Zadie Smith (shortlisted, 2005).

2012 Longlist (with UK/US availability in parenthesis)

The Yips by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate UK, Unknown US)
The Teleportation Accident by Ned Bowman (Sceptre UK, Bloomsbury US)
Philida by André Brink (Harvill Secker UK, Harvill Secker US)
Skios by Michael Frayn (Faber and Faber UK, Metropolitan US)
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (Doubleday UK, Random House US)
Communion Town by Sam Thompson (Fourth Estate UK, Unknown US)

2012 Shortlist

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (Myrmidon UK, Weinstein US)
Swimming Home by Deborah Levy (And Other Stories UK, And Other Stories US)
The Lighthouse by Alison Moore (Salt UK, Salt US)
Umbrella by Will Self (Bloomsbury UK, Grove US)
Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil (Faber and Faber UK, Penguin US)

2012 Winner
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate UK, Henry Holt and Co US)

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

This book, the sequel to Wolf Hall, depicts Thomas Cromwell's involvement in the execution of Anne Boleyn. Even though the end is clear to even the most casual students of the Tudors, the book does an excellent job imagining the tension of those last few months: the multiple possibilities opening up and then closing in towards the executioner's block. Although the characters are all viivid (Henry, Katherine, Chapuys, Anne, Jane Seymour all stand out), the portrait of Cromwell is masterful. What were his motivations? His fears? How did he cope with the death of his wife? The threats of the nobles whose downfall he was orchestrating? Why was he so fiercely protective of Wyatt? While this book doesn't pretend to offer definitive answers, it does provide a plausible and compelling case for one way of understanding the man.