Man Booker longlist announced

The ‘Man Booker Dozen’ is announced

29 July 2008

The judges for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction have announced the longlist for this year's prize.

The longlist of 13 books, often referred to as the ‘Man Booker Dozen', was chosen from 112 entries; 103 were submitted for the prize and nine were called in by the judges.

The titles are:

Aravind Adiga              The White Tiger
Gaynor Arnold             Girl in a Blue Dress
Sebastian Barry           The Secret Scripture
John Berger                 From A to X
Michelle de Kretser      The Lost Dog
Amitav Ghosh              Sea of Poppies
Linda Grant                 The Clothes on Their Backs
Mohammed Hanif         A Case of Exploding Mangoes
Philip Hensher             The Northern Clemency
Joseph O'Neill              Netherland
Salman Rushdie          The Enchantress of Florence
Tom Rob Smith            Child 44
Steve Toltz                   A Fraction of the Whole

Chair of judges, Michael Portillo, commented:

"With a notable degree of consensus, the five Man Booker judges decided on their longlist of 13 books. The judges are pleased with the geographical balance of the longlist with writers from Pakistan, India, Australia, Ireland and UK. We also are happy with the interesting mix of books, five first novels and two novels by former winners. The list covers an extraordinary variety of writing. Still two qualities emerge this year: large scale narrative and the striking use of humour."

2008 judges

The judging panel for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction is: Michael Portillo (Chair), former MP and Cabinet Minister, Alex Clark, deputy editor of Granta; Louise Doughty, novelist; James Heneage, founder of Ottakar's bookshops and Hardeep Singh Kohli, TV and radio broadcaster.

Shortlist

The 2008 shortlist will be announced on Tuesday 9th September at a press conference at Man Group's London office. The winner will be announced on Tuesday 14th October at an awards ceremony at Guildhall, London.

Read the press release in our media centre for further details.

See This Year's Prize for more details about the books and authors on the longlist.