I love this time of year!\u00a0 The Man Booker Prize longlist is as follows (dates in parentheses indicate when the title is slated for publication in the United States if it is not already available):<\/p>\n
So, six of the titles are already available in the U.S., a couple more due out before the winner is announced, and four that may never make it here, which is basically right in line with past years. We’ll have to see if the longlist gets any of the other titles a U.S. publication. Last year, my two favorites (Damon Galgut’s\u00a0In a Strange Room<\/em> (review here<\/a>), and Howard Jacobson’s The Finkler Question<\/em> (review here<\/a>))\u00a0were not available in the U.S. when the\u00a0longlist was announced but were soon offered as ebooks, which is how I read them,\u00a0and eventually were published in paperback.<\/p>\n I haven’t read any of the books on this year’s longlist, though I do have copies of The Sisters Brothers<\/em> and The Stranger’s Child<\/em>, both of which I’ve been meaning to read, mostly in anticipation of this list. I’ve heard a lot about On Canaan’s Side<\/em>, Pigeon English<\/em>, and Snowdrops<\/em>, but I’ll have to revisit to see if I want to read them. I felt let down with Barry’s last Booker contender, The Secret Scripture<\/em> (my review here<\/a>) but I liked it enough that I may give this one a go. KevinfromCanada reviewed Far to Go<\/em> earlier this year (KFC review here<\/a>), and I have it marked as one I’d like to get to. I have a soft spot for Julian Barnes, and this short novel sounds excellent to me.<\/p>\n Some exclusions of past winners: Aravind Adiga’s Last Man in the Tower<\/em>, Michael Ondaatje’s Cat’s Table<\/em>, Graham Swift’s Wish You Were Here<\/em>, Barry Unsworth’s\u00a0The Quality of Mercy<\/em>,\u00a0and Anne Enright’s The Forgotten Waltz<\/em>. There are also some\u00a0past strong shortlisters whose exclusion may surprise some:\u00a0Ali Smith’s There but for the<\/em>, Edward St. Aubyn’s At Last<\/em>, Hisham Matar’s Anatomy of a Disappearance<\/em>,\u00a0Linda Grant’s\u00a0We Had It So Good<\/em>, and Philip Hensher’s King of the Badgers<\/em>.\u00a0I thought perhaps David Bezmozgis’s The Free World<\/em> would find its way there (I’ve read this one but haven’t reviewed it yet — soon).<\/p>\n The general breakdown (which I got from the Man Booker Prize website’s official write-up (here<\/a>)), is one former winner (Holinghurst), two previous shortlisters (Barnes and Barry), and one previous longlister (Birch). There are four first time novelists (Kelman, Miller, Edwards, and McGuinness) and three Canadians writers on the list (deWitt, Edugyan, and Pick).<\/p>\n The shortlist will be announced September 6. The winner on October 18.<\/p>\n Other than that, I’m anxious to see how this year stacks up. I’m not particularly thrilled about any of the titles, but that hopefully will change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"