Steve Toltz and Mohammed Hanif

Man Booker first-time novelists shortlisted for major award

Toltz and Hanif shortlisted for Guardian First Book Award

3 November 2008

A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2008, has just been shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. Mohammed Hanif, who was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2008 for his novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes, has also been shortlisted for the prestigious first book award.

A Fraction of the Whole was one of only three novels that this year's Man Booker Prize chair, Michael Portillo, described as ‘serious contenders'. In a post-prize blog on the Man Booker Prize website, Portillo described how Toltz's novel had reduced the male members of the Man Booker judging panel to tears,

"In the judges' deliberations, Toltz did not have broad enough support to prevail but I would like to mention an incident during our discussion. James Heneage recalled the scene where Jasper's father dies on a boat carrying illegal immigrants towards Australia. Just referring to the passage - without even reading it out - James brought tears to his own eyes, and to mine, while Hardeep Singh Kohli began to blub. It must have been one of those things that divides guys from chicks because Alex Clark and Louise Doughty remained composed! I mention the incident because you may have heard that Toltz's book is zany, off-the-wall and painfully funny. You might not have picked up how well it is written."

The Guardian First Book Award shortlist also includes two non-fiction titles, The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross and Owen Matthews' Stalin's Children, as well as God's Own Country by Ross Raisin. The list was described as "ambitious, varied and incredibly individual" by the organisers.  

"These are sophisticated books that require a big investment from the reader - an investment for which they are richly rewarded," said The Guardian's literary editor Claire Armitstead, Chair of the judging panel.

The £10,000 prize, which covers fiction, non-fiction and poetry published in the UK, is voted for by a panel of judges, with input from Waterstone's reading groups. Groups from Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Bath, Oxford and London, and one based online, helped to whittle down the 10-strong longlist to five books.

The Man Booker Prize Fiction at its finest