2008 Orange Prize for Fiction Longlist

ESTABLISHED IN 1996, the Orange Prize for Fiction (now known as the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction) has always courted controversy over the years. Despite what its detractors say, the prize, according to the organisers, is still very much a celebration of women’s fiction. All novels written in English and published in the United Kingdom are eligible for this international prize. This time seven first-time novelists are up against some of the most celebrated women writers in the English language such as Stella Duffy, Jennifer Egan, Anne Enright, Linda Grant, Tessa Hadley, Nancy Huston, Gail Jones, Charlotte Mendelson, Deborah Moggach, Anita Nair, Elif Shafak, Scarlett Thomas and Rose Tremain. The seven first-time authors are Anita Amirrezvani, Sadie Jones, Lauren Liebenberg, Heather O’Neill, Dalia Sofer, Carol Topolski and Patricia Wood. Anne Enright’s The Gathering won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2007. Linda Grant won the Orange Prize for Fiction for When I Lived in Modern Times in 2000. Charlotte Mendelson won the Somerset Maugham Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her second novel, Daughters of Jerusalem in 2003. Elif Shafak writes in Turkish, but The Bastard of Istanbul, is her second novel she wrote in English. And Rose Tremain is of course Rose Tremain, one of the wonders of English fiction.


Here’s the longlist:

1. The Blood of Flowers (Headline Review, 2007) / Anita Amirrezvani
2. The Room of Lost Things (Virago, 2008) / Stella Duffy
3. The Keep (Abacus, 2007) / Jennifer Egan
4. The Gathering (Jonathan Cape, 2007) / Anne Enright
5. The Clothes on Their Backs (Virago, 2008) / Linda Grant
6. The Master Bedroom (Jonathan Cape, 2007) / Tessa Hadley
7. Fault Lines (Atlantic Books, 2008) / Nancy Huston
8. Sorry (Harvill Secker, 2007) / Gail Jones
9. The Outcast (Chatto & Windus, 2008) / Sadie Jones
10. The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam (Virago, 2008) / Lauren Liebenberg
11. When We Were Bad (Picador/Houghton Mifflin, 2007) / Charlotte Mendelson
12. In the Dark (Chatto & Windus, 2007) / Deborah Moggach
13. Mistress (Black Amber, 2007) / Anita Nair
14. Lullabies for Little Criminals (Quercus, 2008) / Heather O’Neill
15. The Bastard of Istanbul (Viking, 2007) / Elif Shafak
16. The Septembers of Shiraz (Ecco Press/Picador, 2007) / Dalia Sofer
17. The End of Mr Y (Canongate, 2007) / Scarlett Thomas
18. Monster Love (Fig Tree, 2008) / Carol Topolski
19. The Road Home (Chatto & Windus, 2007) / Rose Tremain
20. Lottery (William Heinemann, 2007) / Patricia Wood

A shortlist of six novels will be announced on April 15, 2008. The winner of the 2008 Orange Prize for Fiction will be announced on June 4, 2008