Man Booker Prize Longlist 2013 Announced

I try to keep up to date with literary happenings, and the Man Booker Prize is one of my favourites. I am currently in the middle of trying to get through all of the previous Man Booker winners and enjoying the challenge. So here are the 13 books longlisted from the 151 eligible.

Five Star Billionaire Tash Aw (Fourth Estate)We Need New Names NoViolet Bulawayo (Chatto & Windus)The Luminaries Eleanor Catton (Granta)Harvest Jim Crace (Picador)The Marrying of Chani Kaufman Eve Harris (Sandstone Press)The Kills Richard House (Picador)The Lowland Jhumpa Lahiri (Bloomsbury)Unexploded Alison MacLeod ( Hamish Hamilton)TransAtlantic Colum McCann (Bloomsbury)Almost English Charlotte Mendelson (Mantle)A Tale for the Time Being Ruth Ozeki (Canongate)The Spinning Heart Donal Ryan (Doubleday Ireland)The Testament of Mary Colm Tóibín (Viking)My first thoughts are that there is quite a mixture of established authors and cultures (Colm Toibin, Tash Aw, Colum McCann), and some new faces, including Donal Ryan, whose book The Spinning Heart I recognize as being part of the Waterstones Eleven Debut Authors to watch out for this year. Robert Macfarlane, this year’s chair of judges, said: “This is surely the most diverse longlist in Man Booker history: wonderfully various in terms of geography, form, length and subject. These 13 outstanding novels range from the traditional to the experimental, from the first century AD to the present day, from 100 pages to 1,000, and from Shanghai to Hendon.” The judges will meet again in September to choose a shortlist,  and the winner of the £50,000 prize will be named on the 15th of October.Hmm… I think I’m going to enjoy researching this further…For more information, please see the Man Booker website HERE.