What we're fascinated with: Booker shortlist edition

Nominees (the "shortlist") for the U.K.'s Booker Prize have been announced:

Sarah Waters, THE NIGHT WATCH
Kiran Desai, THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS
Kate Grenville, THE SECRET RIVER
M J Hyland, CARRY ME DOWN
Hisham Matar, IN THE COUNTRY OF MEN
Edward St Aubyn, MOTHER'S MILK

(Courtesy GalleyCat)

Of the six novels:

• Three are concerned primarily with family life.
• Two of those are about pre-teens growing up poor -- one in Ireland, the other in India.
• Four are set in the past (18th century to the 1980s); two are set in the present.
• Four are by women, two by men; in each, the main character is of the author's gender.
• One, Hisham Matar's "In the Country of Men," is a first novel.