2006 Guardian First Book Prize

THE LONGLIST of 10 books for the 2006 Guardian First Book Prize comprises four novels, a collection of stories, a poetry collection, two biographies, a memoir and a natural history tome: an assorted cocktail of genres, if ever there was one. A shortlist will be declared in November 2006 and the winner in December 2006.

Fiction
Harbor (Portobello) / Lorraine Adams
Poppy Shakespeare (Bloomsbury) / Clare Allan
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (stories) (Fourth Estate) / Yiyun Li
In the Country of Men (Viking) / Hisham Matar
Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living (Picador) / Carrie Tiffany

Poetry
Waiting for the Night-Rowers (Enitharmon) / Roger Moulson

Nonfiction
Running for the Hills (Memoir) (John Murray) / Horatio Clare
Lonesome George: The Lives and Loves of a Conservation Icon (Natural History) (Palgrave Macmillan) / Henry Nicholls
A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveller (Biography) (Simon & Schuster) / Jason Roberts
Donne: The Reformed Soul (Biography) (Viking) / John Stubbs

I am especially partial to the following titles:

Running for the Hills (John Murray) / Horatio Clare
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (Fourth Estate) / Yiyun Li
In the Country of Men (Viking) / Hisham Matar
Waiting for the Night-Rowers (Enitharmon) / Roger Moulson
Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living (Picador) / Carrie Tiffany