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A 'diverse and international' Man Booker longlist

3 August 2015

The longlist for this year's Man Booker Prize is both diverse and international, with a wide range of different kinds of writers and a number of debuts. The longlist features three British writers, five US writers and one each from the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, India, Nigeria and Jamaica. Marlon James, who currently lives in Minneapolis, is the first Jamaican-born author to be nominated for the prize. Laila Lalami, now based in Santa Monica but born in Rabat, is the first Moroccan-born.

The three debut novelists on the longlist are Bill Clegg, Chigozie Obioma and Anna Smaill. Four independent publishers have their books on the list, with Garnet Publishing and Pushkin Press appearing for the first time.

So, it's an extremely interesting list for a lot of reasons. Those who feared that opening up the Prize to any book in English, wherever it was originally published (as long as it was also published in the UK) would change it radically are probably still quite anxious. Literary agent David Godwin (known in fact for his international client list) has said the dominance of American writers on this year's longlist - there are five - mean that people's "worst fears have come to pass".

"The Booker prize was established to celebrate British and Commonwealth writers but they are the real casualties here," he said. "They have been overwhelmed. Its nature has changed dramatically and the consequences are really tragic. There was absolutely no need to change the rules. None of the major American prizes are open to Brits. It's a very sad state of affairs."

Michael Wood, Chair of the judges said:

"I think the list says something about the range of possibilities for writers. There are all kinds of ways of being a writer. These books do everything: the authors have invented worlds, have written about themselves, about other people. (The inclusion of American writers) opened the door to other parts of the world", pointing out that Yanagihara's ancestry is Hawaiian, and that Lalami was born in Morocco.

"We 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 list is actually quite adventurous, as can be seen from the fact that the Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/29/man-booker-prize-2015-bill-... commented on the absence of "big names" on the list, including Kazuo Ishiguro, Salman Rushdie, Jonathan Franzen, and Margaret Atwood, none of whom were chosen.

The Guardian led with the inclusion of literary agent Bill Clegg, who provided our Comment recently, as did Anne Enright.

The UK book trade reaction was largely positive. Jonathan Ruppin, web editor for Foyles, said: ‘The decision to open up the prize beyond the Commonwealth seemed validated, as it's a list that reflects global reach and interaction of Anglophone writers.'

Sheryl Shurville of Chorleywood Bookshop said: "It's an amazingly diverse list with both new names and respected known authors, which reflects how international the prize has become. Proof that changing the rules brings new life to this prestigious prize."

The shortlist of six books will be announced on Tuesday 15 September and the 2015 winner will then be announced on Tuesday 13 October in London's Guildhall. The shortlisted authors receive £2,500 each, and the winning author receives a further £50,000.

The ceremony will be broadcast by the BBC.

The 2015 longlist, or Man Booker ‘Dozen', of 13 novels, is:

DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY, Bill Clegg (US)
THE GREEN ROAD, Anne Enright (Ireland)
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS, Marlon James (Jamaica)
THE MOOR'S ACCOUNT, Laila Lalami (US)
SATIN ISLAND, Tom McCarthy (UK)
THE FISHERMEN, Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria)
THE ILLUMINATIONS, Andrew O'Hagan (UK)
LILA, Marilynne Robinson (US)
SLEEPING ON JUPITER, Anuradha Roy (India)
THE YEAR OF THE RUNAWAYS, Sunjeev Sahota (UK)
THE CHIMES, Anna Smaill (New Zealand)
A SPOOL OF BLUE THREAD, Anne Tyler (US)
A LITTLE LIFE, Hanya Yanagihara (US)

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