The Fifth Annual Tournament of Books site will launch on Monday, March 9, 2009.
More information.
Anticipating this year's Rooster, we thought it would be interesting to review the results from previous tournaments all in one place.
The following table shows each contender from 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005, including each book's title, author, assigned bracket seed, and also the odds it was given to win by Coudal.com's annual Rooster handicap (which we don't have anything to do with, though we think it's neat). The books are scored according to the following system:
Note, Coudal did not handicap the 2005 books, nor was there a Zombie round in those days. Enjoy!
| The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz | 2 | 5/2 | 15 |
| The Road by Cormac McCarthy | 1 | 5/2 | 15 |
| The Accidental by Ali Smith | 2 | 8/1 | 15 |
| Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell | 1 | n/a | 10 |
| Home Land by Sam Lipsyte | 3 | 9/2 | 10 |
| Remainder by Tom McCarthy | 4 | 7/1 | 8 |
| Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart | 1 | 15/2 | 7 |
| Then We Came to the End Joshua Ferris | 1 | 3/1 | 6 |
| Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon | 1 | 9/2 | 6 |
| One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson | 3 | 7/1 | 6 |
| The Plot Against America by Philip Roth | 1 | n/a | 6 |
| Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer | 3 | 4/1 | 4 |
| History of Love by Nicole Krauss | 1 | 3/1 | 3 |
| Saturday by Ian McEwan | 2 | 3/1 | 3 |
| Tree of Smoke by Dennis Johnson | 1 | 7/2 | 3 |
| On Beauty by Zadie Smith | 1 | 7/2 | 3 |
| The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño | 2 | 5/1 | 3 |
| Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | 4 | 6/1 | 3 |
| The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins | 2 | 10/1 | 3 |
| Heir To a Glimmering World by Cynthia Ozick | 2 | n/a | 3 |
| I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe | 1 | n/a | 3 |
| Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro | 1 | 5/2 | 1 |
| The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud | 3 | 7/2 | 1 |
| No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy | 1 | 7/2 | 1 |
| Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida | 3 | 7/1 | 1 |
| The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford | 1 | 7/1 | 1 |
| Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala | 4 | 6/1 | 1 |
| You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem | 2 | 20/1 | 1 |
| Firmin by Sam Savage | 3 | 20/1 | 1 |
| Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali | 3 | 24/1 | 1 |
| Shining at the Bottom of the Sea by Stephen Marche | 4 | 35/1 | 1 |
| An Unfinished Season by Ward Just | 2 | n/a | 1 |
| Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke | 1 | n/a | 1 |
| The Inner Circle by T.C. Boyle | 3 | n/a | 1 |
| Birds Without Wings by Louis De Bernieres | 2 | n/a | 1 |
| On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan | 1 | 5/2 | 0 |
| Arthur and George by Julian Barnes | 2 | 4/1 | 0 |
| The Echo Maker by Richard Powers | 2 | 4/1 | 0 |
| Run by Ann Patchett | 1 | 9/2 | 0 |
| The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova | 2 | 5/1 | 0 |
| Veronica by Mary Gaitskill | 2 | 7/1 | 0 |
| Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman | 3 | 8/1 | 0 |
| What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman | 3 | 9/1 | 0 |
| An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke | 3 | 10/1 | 0 |
| Garner by Kristin Allio | 3 | 10/1 | 0 |
| Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughn and Niko Henrichon | 4 | 10/1 | 0 |
| New England White by Stephen Carter | 3 | 12/1 | 0 |
| Apex Hides the Hurt by Colson Whitehead | 2 | 16/1 | 0 |
| Ovenman by Jeff Parker | 4 | 20/1 | 0 |
| Brookland by Emily Barton | 2 | 20/1 | 0 |
| The King of Kings County by Whitney Terrel | 4 | 20/1 | 0 |
| The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo by Peter Orner | 4 | 20/1 | 0 |
| The Time In Between by Dave Bergen | 4 | 20/1 | 0 |
| English, August by Upamanyu Chatterjee | 4 | 24/1 | 0 |
| Petropolis by Anya Ulinich | 4 | 28/1 | 0 |
| The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole by Stephanie Doyon | 4 | 30/1 | 0 |
| Harbor by Lorraine Adams | 3 | n/a | 0 |
| The Bad Boy's Wife by Karen Shepard | 4 | n/a | 0 |
| The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat | 3 | n/a | 0 |
| Wake Up, Sir by Jonathan Ames | 4 | n/a | 0 |
| The News From Paraguay by Lily Tuck | 2 | n/a | 0 |
| The Rope Eater by Ben Jones | 4 | n/a | 0 |
| Human Capital by Stephen Amidon | 3 | n/a | 0 |
| The Finishing School by Muriel Spark | 4 | n/a | 0 |
*Odd are assigned by Coudal.com and are based on their judgment using the publicly available information about the Tournament (i.e., we're not in on it). We know Jim Coudal and his folks well, but we are not involved in establishing the odds or the gaming.