American writers dominate the Man Booker Prize long list with five inclusions followed by the UK with three. Ireland, Jamaica, Nigeria, India and New Zealand all have one. Already this has fuelled a renewal of opposition to the expansion of the prize to writers from outside the UK& Commonwealth, Zimbabwe and the Republic of Ireland last year.
- Bill Clegg (US) – Did You Ever Have a Family (Jonathan Cape)
- Anne Enright (Ireland) – The Green Road (Jonathan Cape)
- Marlon James (Jamaica) – A Brief History of Seven Killings(Oneworld Publications)
- Laila Lalami (US) – The Moor’s Account (Periscope, Garnet Publishing)
- Tom McCarthy (UK) – Satin Island (Jonathan Cape)
- Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria) – The Fishermen (ONE, Pushkin Press)
- Andrew O’Hagan (UK) – The Illuminations (Faber & Faber)
- Marilynne Robinson (US) – Lila (Virago)
- Anuradha Roy (India) – Sleeping on Jupiter (MacLehose Press, Quercus)
- Sunjeev Sahota (UK) – The Year of the Runaways (Picador)
- Anna Smaill (New Zealand) – The Chimes (Sceptre)
- Anne Tyler (US) – A Spool of Blue Thread (Chatto & Windus)
- Hanya Yanagihara (US) – A Little Life (Picador)
The Chair of the judges, Michael Wood, said that they had “a great time choosing this list. Discussions weren’t always peaceful, but they were always very friendly. We were lucky in our companions and the submissions were extraordinary. The longlist could have been twice as long, but we’re more than happy with our final choice. The range of different performances and forms of these novels is amazing. All of them do something exciting with the language they have chosen to use.”
Last year’s winning novel was Australian Richard Flanagan’s The Long Road to the Deep North. The shortlist of six books will be announced on Tuesday 15 September and the eventual winner announced on Tuesday October 13.
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