McCrum takes on Man Booker critics

The Observer's Robert McCrum has described the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize, to be awarded tomorrow (25th October), as "among the best, and most confident, of recent years", calling the selected authors "a distinctive slate of new writers, all of them deserving of the attention bestowed on their work by Booker."

McCrum's view is in contrast to those expressed about the longlist by the Sunday Times' Andrew Holgate - "this year's list feels too top-heavy with US writers - and not ones necessarily to inspire any sort of excitement" -  and Robbie Millen of The Times:  "The dizzying desire by judges to discover new voices or to lift up the obscure or to reward the bewilderingly experimental is making the prize less relevant to the book-buying public."

McCrum's view is: "On my reading, Foreman [Amanda Foreman, chair of the judges] should raise the curtain on a significant new generation. Dramatically enhanced publicity for new fiction will always be a raison d'être for this prize." He added: "Despite the upheavals in the book world, the continuities remain stronger than the disruptions. More readers worldwide are consuming new fiction in English than ever before, and Booker is now in a position to reward it."

McCrum does not venture to back a winner, saying the outcome of tomorrow's award is "not obvious."

Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project (Contraband) is by far the sales frontrunner via Nielsen BookScan statistics, with 30,262 copies sold. The week before the longlist announcement, it sold just a single copy; but its volume rocketed (to 95 copies) the week after. However, it was the shortlist announcement that really lit the fire underneath the former Waterstones bookseller’s crime title, with  4,572 copies sold that week, a jump of 371%. His Bloody Project hit the Top 50—the only Man Booker shortlistee to do so—for four weeks. It has now sold more than the rest of Saraband’s entire back catalogue combined.

Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen (Vintage) has also been boosted. Recently out in paperback, it has sold 12,734 copies total, with 85% of those shifted in the five weeks since the shortlist announcement—a jump of 465%.

Paul Beatty’s The Sellout (Oneworld) has sold 8,865 copies total in paperback, with 5,912 copies sold since the shortlist announcement. It jumped 338% in volume the week of the announcement.

Madeleine Thein’s Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Granta) has sold 7,135 copies, jumping 314% in the week of the shortlist announcement.

Deborah Levy’s Hot Milk (Hamish Hamilton) and David Szalay’s All That Man Is (Jonathan Cape) are still currently only available in hardback, but both have seen a Man Booker bump—Hot Milk leapt 395% in volume the week the shortlist was announced, and has sold 3,714 copies since then. All That Man Is has sold 2,199 copies since the announcement, boosted 151%.

The winner of the £50,000 award will be announced at an evening ceremony tomorrow (25th). Meanwhile The Folio Prize is to extend its remit to include non-fiction, The Bookseller learned last week.