The longlist for the 2013 Booker Prize has been announced (it is below). Most of the commentary surrounding the announcement is about the length of chosen books. Robert Macfarlane, who led the judging panel, has spoken of the thrill of including Colm Tóibín’s The Testament of Mary (112 pages), Richard House’s The Kills (912-pages) and 28-year-old Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries (832 pages) on the same list.
Jim Crace’s Harvest has made the cut, which will please his fans because he has said that Harvest is his last novel.
Macfarlane’s panel – Martha Kearney, Stuart Kelly, Natalie Haynes and Robert Douglas-Fairhurst – will deliberate over the summer. The shortlist will be announced on 10th September 2013. The winner will be announced at a gala dinner on 15th October.
Tash Aw Five Star Billionaire (Fourth Estate)
NoViolet Bulawayo We Need New Names (Chatto & Windus)
Eleanor Catton The Luminaries (Granta)
Jim Crace Harvest (Picador)
Eve Harris The Marrying of Chani Kaufman (Sandstone Press)
Richard House The Kills (Picador)
Jhumpa Lahiri The Lowland (Bloomsbury)
Alison MacLeod Unexploded (Hamish Hamilton)
Colum McCann TransAtlantic (Bloomsbury)
Charlotte Mendelson Almost English (Mantle)
Ruth Ozeki A Tale for the Time Being (Canongate)
Donal Ryan The Spinning Heart (Doubleday Ireland)
Colm Tóibín The Testament of Mary (Viking)
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