Allowing for the fact that this is Ireland where we don't let anyone away with anything, I believe this year's Booker Prize should have been a two-book battle between Quarantine and John Banville's The Untouchable. Just as many of us enjoy compiling dreamsquads for the 4 x 400 metres relay, or fantasy rugby teams, how about this personal Booker 1997 short list?

1. John Banville's The Untouchable. Traitor and art historian Victor Maskell, now exposed, decides to tell his story before anyone else does. A typical Banville narrator, he is aloof, intellectual, viciously clever and disdainful of others. Yet, for all its history and art, this is largely a love story. Victor's life has been dominated by his love for the elusive Nick. Elegant and atmospheric, The Untouchable is extraordinarily moving and though well reviewed in Britain, has suffered by too many reviewers being so taken with the story they overlooked the art, pathos and beauty of one of the year's best novels - and also one of Banville's finest achievements. 2. Jim Crace's Quarantine as outlined, right, is a beautiful book and a worthy winner - if it wins, of course. 3. Ardashir Vakil's debut, Beach Boy, encapsulates so much that is best in contemporary Indian fiction. This is one boy's acount of growing up in Bombay with wealthy, if distracted, parents. Young Cyrus, the hero, learnt early to exploit the sympathies of his friend's parents and most other people as well. Funny and touching, Vakil writes in elegant, formal, almost old-fashioned prose, which is also conversational and witty. The voice makes this book, as does the wonderful characterisation. 4. Peter Carey's Jack Maggs. Since the publication of Illywhacker in 1985 Carey, a former Booker winner with Oscar And Lucinda in 1988, has consistently demonstrated a bizarre originality and the ability to create the most remarkable images. Even at its darkest, Carey's work is light, surreal and engaging. Set in London in 1837, Jack Maggs is almost a thriller in which Maggs, once deported as a criminal, secretly returns to Britain from Australia. 5. I'd also have Tim Park's Europa, as explained right. 6. Then there's Guy Vanderhaeghe's The English- man's Boy. A lot depends on how one might feel about the Canadian Wild West being given the full Hollywood treatment. Canadian Vanderhaeghe impressed greatly when Man Descending and My Present Age were published in Britain in 1987. Not only is this novel a great comeback - but if ever there was a Booker book, this is it.