Every year, I’m excited about the Man Booker Prize. I’m not quite sure why it’s this prize in particular that interests me the most, but fact is, it is. Maybe because it often is very good books that are both long- and short-listed as well as eventually wins.
Every year I want to read the long-list and thereby form my own opinion on which books deserve to be put on the short-list – and which book ultimately deserves to win. Each year I fail in doing this – mostly because I can’t afford buying all the books (and most of them aren’t available in Denmark anyway so I have to order them from abroad which of course costs more). Time is also a factor in my not getting around to reading the entire long-list. Still, I dream of doing so one year.
Last year, Hilary Mantel made history by winning for the second time – with the second book in her Cromwell series.
This year – someone else will get the honor.
This year’s longlist:
- Ruth Ozeki: A Tale for the Time Being
- Charlotte Mendelson: Almost English
- Tash Aw: Five Star Billionaire
- Jim Crace: Harvest
- Richard House: The Kills
- Jhumpa Lahiri: The Lowland
- Eleanor Catton: The Luminaries
- Eve Harris: The Marrying of Chani Kaufman
- Donal Ryan: The Spinning Heart
- Colm Toibin: The Testament of Mary
- Colum McCann: TransAtlantic
- Alison MacLeod: Unexploded
- Noviolet Bulawayo: We Need New Names
You can read more about these books here.
I haven’t read any of these books – and only one book by one of the longlisted authors (Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann which I loved).
I will try to see if I can find some of these and at least make it through a few of them before the shortlist will be revealed on September 10.
Anybody have any thoughts on this year’s longlist?
Related posts:
The Literary Bunny 
My thoughts: I’m glad Mantel isn’t on the list.
I haven’t read any of the books on the longlist. Guess I need to fix that.
Well Mantel is probably on the list again in 2014 or 2015…
And yeah, we probably should check out some of these books. We can split the list between us 😉
Okay!
You serious?
We can, but I don’t know how fast I can get them read.
Me neither but it could be fun to go for it. I think there’s a couple which haven’t been published yet so that narrows the task a bit 🙂
Email me sometime and we’ll figure it out.
hlindskold (at) btweenthecovers (dot) com
Lol…I think Mantel will release her 3rd installment of the Thomas Cromwell Trilogy next year. I wonder if they will give it another Booker…it would be 3 for 3, probably a first in Booker history.
I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never heard of any of the books on the long list. Though I know some of the writers.
She already made history by winning with the second part. If I was her, I would be so scared of not being able to live up to people’s expectations. She has set the bar pretty high for herself!
You’re right. Maybe if the 3rd installment isn’t as good as the 1st two, the Booker committee would just give it to her anyway as a bonus lol. I’m really looking forward to that 3rd book, though.
I think I’ll wait for the third one and then read all three together. I found the first one confusing.
That would be a good idea. Yeah, her writing style could make things seem confusing. Though I really liked Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, there were lots of times when I had to re-read certain sentences / paragraphs because I was confused as to what was happening. Also it’s hard to figure out who is saying what most of the time. But I guess you get used to it after a while.
I couldn’t even get through 100 pages of Wolf Hall. I thought it was terrible. Haha! To each his/her own, I guess.
Haha that’s too bad, but I know of other people who couldn’t stand it either. I liked it a lot for some reason…but I understand how some people find it hard to get into.
You know, I read but I had a hard time following it. It is an interesting subject but a difficult book.
I haven’t read a single entry on the long list, though I do have TransAtlantic coming up. I’ve been hit or miss with the Booker Prize lately. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they get it so very wrong (I think this more stems from them awarding the prize for the wrong reason).
I have been going back and forth with TransAtlantic. The subject doesn’t quite do it for me but I really liked Let The Great World Spin and probably wouldn’t have read that either if it hadn’t been for a book club. So maybe I should give it a try?
I’ve only read one, TransAtlantic and loved that and have started The Spinning Heart, a bit of an Irish theme, in fact 3 Irish authors nominated and quite a number of new names which is interesting.
I was disappointed not to see Chimamanada Ngozi Adichie on the list, even though I have not read Americanah, but had heard such good things about it. Today I hear comparisons being made with NoViolet’s book, only hers is a child protagonist. Will be interesting to hear more comparisons on these two.
Interesting that there are relatively few, very established British names and not many from the Granta list either. Good publicity for some new authors! Good luck reading your way through the list.
Yeah, there’s no Atwood or Coetzee on the list so I think it could be a good way to be introduced to a couple of new authors. NoViolet in particular sounds interesting – especially if there’s a similarity in themes in her work and Adiche’s.