The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris
It is a great success to have your debut novel long-listed for The Man Booker Prize. It means reviews from critics who would probably have overlooked you. It means sales you’d probably otherwise not have gotten. It also means your novel is looked at far more critically than it would have been had it not been long-listed. The last few weeks have seen a number of reviews of Eve Harris’ debut novel, The Marrying of Chani Kaufman, published through small Scottish label, Sandstone Press, and the reviews have almost all said how unlikely it is for the novel to progress to the shortlist. I mention these points as, for however fine a novel The Marrying of Chani Kaufman is (and it is a perfectly fine novel), it cannot be helped but to think it is a novel punching above its weight, that the attention only serves to highlight the novels flaws, and puts undue pressure on Harris for her next novel. Chani Kaufman is a girl about to marry a boy s...