style="overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;">This week, after a year of whittling down more than 150 candidates, the literary quarterly Granta announced its latest list of Britain’s 20 best novelists under 40. The accompanying issue offers readers a version of literary speed dating, exhilarating and awkward by turns; everyone tries to present their best face but it is not always possible to get a sense of the whole before the bell rings and we are ushered to the next table.