Tom McCarthy is a very good writer; pretty decent novel but not my sort of thing; a life from birth to death in the first part of the last century. Terribly well researched and described; similar to the Galgut in that expected things don't happen but Galgut beats it by far for me.

It could win though - it has echoes of Rushdie in it and I suspect McCarthy thinks he's better than he is; Booker judges love that attitude.