Booker Longlist: Barker, Brink, Eng, Frayn, Mantel, Self

The big event in London this week, the Man Booker Prize announced its longlist of twelve titles:

Nicola Barker, The Yips

Ned Beauman, The Teleportation Accident

André Brink, Philida

Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists

Michael Frayn, Skios

Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Deborah Levy, Swimming Home

Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies

Alison Moore, The Lighthouse

Will Self, Umbrella

Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis

Sam Thompson, Communion Town

Absent are Zadie Smith (NW, her first novel in seven years), John Lancaster (Capital), Ian McEwan (Sweet Tooth), Martin Amis (Lionel Asbo), Peter Carey (The Chemistry of Tears), Rose Tremain (Merivel), John Banville (Ancient Light), Pat Barker (Toby's Room), Howard Jacobson (Zoo Time), Philip Hensher (Scenes from Early Life), James Kelman (Mo Said She Was Quirky), William Boyd (Waiting for Sunrise), Sebastian Faulks (A Possible Life), Irvine Welsh (Skagboys), and Jeanette Winterson's witch trial novel (The Daylight Gate). Not sure about timing qualifications for Colm Tóibín in October (The Testament of Mary) and Alice Munro in November (Dear Life).

Comments

[Michael Klein]

What is it about awards in the world? Nobody is MISSING on a list of people who other people think deserve something the people they didn't think about don't deserve. It's arbitrary. Like what you had for lunch. Everybody WINS, if anybody bothers looking up from the screen to read their books. :-) ... Just sayin'

[king]

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[lianggfg]

Most of what you point out is astonishingly legitimate and that makes me wonder why I had not looked at this with this light previously. Your article truly did switch the light on for me personally as far as this specific subject matter goes. But at this time there is actually one particular position I am not too comfy with and whilst I try to reconcile that with the core theme of the position, allow me see just what all the rest of your readers have to say.Nicely done.

[Sandy]

A new novel from Winterson? A British friend stranded in the UK (can't get US student visa appointment until after the Olympics) will still be there on August 16 to pick up a copy for me. Selfish, I admit it. And Toibin's novella in November. Love the detail in the PW synopsis: that Mary did not believe Jesus was the son of god. Champing here.

[Cynthia]

Like Sandy, I'm thrilled to see all the other books that are coming out. A new Pat Barker and a Rose Tremain along with Toibin and Winterson. Thanks for keeping me up to date, Stephen.