The Longlist Of 2018 Man Booker Prize Completed And Announced

The readers in English must straighten there ears - Man Booker Dozen has been officially announced last week. It means that the process of the most prestigious award in the English-speaking literary world has reached its first milestone. The longlist of 13 books was selected from 171 submissions by a panel of five judges.

This year the panel was formed by the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah (Chair); crime writer Val McDermid; cultural critic Leo Robson; feminist writer and critic Jacqueline Rose; and artist and graphic novelist Leanne Shapton. They had to choose from the highest number of titles published between 1 October 2017 and 30 September 2018 put forward in the prize’s 50 year history.

Here is the longlist of this lucky 13:

Belinda Bauer (UK) Snap (Bantam Press)

Anna Burns (UK) Milkman (Faber & Faber)

Nick Drnaso (USA) Sabrina (Granta Books)

Esi Edugyan (Canada) Washington Black (Serpent’s Tail)

Guy Gunaratne (UK) In Our Mad And Furious City (Tinder Press)

Daisy Johnson (UK) Everything Under (Jonathan Cape)

Rachel Kushner (USA) The Mars Room (Jonathan Cape)

Sophie Mackintosh (UK) The Water Cure (Hamish Hamilton)

Michael Ondaatje (Canada) Warlight (Jonathan Cape)

Richard Powers (USA) The Overstory (William Heinemann)

Robin Robertson (UK) The Long Take (Picador)

Sally Rooney (Ireland) Normal People (Faber & Faber)

Donal Ryan (Ireland) From A Low And Quiet Sea (Doubleday Ireland)

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, first awarded in 1969, is open to writers of any nationality, writing in English and published in the UK and Ireland. This is the first year that novels published in Ireland are eligible for the prize, following a change in rules announced at the start of 2018 that recognised the special relationship between the UK and Irish publishing markets.

Last year's winner was Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders. The international success of the novel resulted in the increased sales by 1227%. Bloomsbury has to date sold over 230k copies of the book across all formats, 70% of those sales coming after the win.

The shortlist of six books will be announced on Thursday 20 September at a morning press conference at Man Group, the sponsor of the prize. The 2018 winner will then be announced on Tuesday 16 October in London’s Guildhall at a black-tie dinner, one of the highlights of the publishing year. The ceremony will be broadcast by the BBC.

Source: www.themanbookerprize.com