Monday, January 14, 2008

Nicola Barker's "Darkmans"

Nicola Barker is the author of two short-story collections: Love Your Enemies and Heading Inland. Her novels include Reversed Forecast, Small Holdings, Wide Open, Behindlings, and Clear, the last of which was long-listed for the 2005 Booker Prize.

Invited to apply the "Page 99 Test" to her latest novel Darkmans -- which was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize -- she responded:
I regret to say that I do not believe Ford Madox Ford ever wrote a decent sentence in his life, let alone a whole page, so you will have to forgive my reluctance to use my own work as a testing ground for his specious theories...
Learn more about Darkmans at the publisher's website.

--Marshal Zeringue