2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction

SO, WHO WILL MAKE IT TO THE LONGLIST?

THE 2009 MAN BOOKER PRIZE FOR FICTION will very soon be upon us. And it looks like it will be a battle of the biggies this year! There are many former prize-winners [Margaret Atwood, John Banville (The Infinities), Anita Brookner, A.S. Byatt, J.M. Coetzee (Summertime), Thomas Keneally (The People’s Train), Penelope Lively (Family Album), Barry Unsworth (Land of Marvels)] as well as those who had been shortlisted for the prize before [William Boyd (Ordinary Thunderstorms), Justin Cartwright, Jane Gardam (The Man in the Wooden Hat), Kate Grenville, Sarah Hall (How to Paint a Dead Man), M.J. Hyland, Hilary Mantel, Anita Mason (The Right Hand of the Sun), Caryl Phillips (In the Falling Snow), Colm Tóibín, Sarah Waters]. Tóibín was twice shortlisted for The Blackwater Lightship and The Master.

This year sees many female authors writing at the height of their power. Will we see a female-dominated shortlist this year, I wonder?

There are a couple of outstanding début novelists: Gil Adamson, Rosie Alison, Eleanor Catton (The Rehearsal), Samantha Harvey, Francesca Kay (winner of the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers), Ed O’Loughlin (Not Untrue & Not Unkind), Jacob Polley (Talk of the Town), Anthony Quinn and Abraham Verghese. There are also new novels from Michael Arditti (The Enemy of the Good), Tash Aw (Map of the Invisible World), Joseph Boyden, Amit Chaudhuri (The Immortals), Amanda Craig, Rachel Cusk (The Bradshaw Variations), Rana Dasgupta (Solo), Sarah Dunant (Sacred Hearts), Geoff Dyer (Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi), Diana Evans (The Wonder), Sebastian Faulks (A Week in December), Patrick Gale (The Whole Day Through), Rawi Hage (Cockroach), Christine Dwyer Hickey (Last Train from Liguria), Sadie Jones (Small Wars), Claire Kilroy (All Names Have Been Changed), Colin McAdam (Fall), James Scudamore (Heliopolis), Kamila Shamsie (Burnt Shadows), Roma Tearne, Adam Thirlwell (The Escape), Adam Thorpe, William Trevor (Love and Summer) and Sally Vickers (Dancing Backwards). Forward Poetry Prize and T.S. Eliot Prize-winning poet Sean O’Brien has written a first novel, Afterlife (Picador).

Any full-length novel, written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland and published in 2009, is eligible for the prize. The novel must be an original work in English, not a translation, and must not be self-published.

Here’s a list of some of the literary highlights:

1. The Outlander (Bloomsbury, 2009) / Gil Adamson
2. The Very Thought of You (Alma Books, 2009) / Rosie Alison
3. The Year of the Flood (Bloomsbury, 2009) / Margaret Atwood
4. Through Black Spruce (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009) / Joseph Boyden
5. Strangers (Fig Tree, 2009) / Anita Brookner
6. The Children’s Book (Chatto & Windus, 2009) / A.S. Byatt
7. Summertime (Harvill Secker, 2009) / J.M. Coetzee
8. Hearts and Minds (Little, Brown, 2009) / Amanda Craig
9. The Great Lover (Sceptre, 2009) / Jill Dawson
10. The Quickening Maze (Jonathan Cape, 2009) / Adam Foulds

11. The Lieutenant (Canongate, 2009) / Kate Grenville
12. How to Paint a Dead Man (Faber & Faber, 2009) / Sarah Hall
13. The Truth About Love (Virago, 2009) / Josephine Hart
14. The Wilderness (Jonathan Cape, 2009) / Samantha Harvey
15. The Hidden (Faber & Faber, 2009) / Tobias Hill
16. This Is How (Canongate, 2009) / M.J. Hyland
17. An Equal Stillness (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009) / Francesca Kay
18. Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate, 2009) / Hilary Mantel
19. The Glass Room (Little, Brown, 2009) / Simon Mawer
20. The Winter Vault (Bloomsbury, 2009) / Anne Michaels

21. Stone’s Fall (Jonathan Cape/Spiegel and Grau, 2009) / Iain Pears
22. The Rescue Man (Jonathan Cape, 2009) / Anthony Quinn
23. Heliopolis (Harvill Secker, 2009) / James Scudamore
24. Ask Alice (Chatto & Windus, 2009) / D.J. Taylor
25. Brixton Beach (Harper Press, 2009) / Roma Tearne
26. Hodd (Jonathan Cape, 2009) / Adam Thorpe
27. Brooklyn (Viking, 2009) / Colm Tóibín
28. Love and Summer (Viking, 2009) / William Trevor
29. Cutting for Stone (Chatto & Windus, 2009) / Abraham Verghese
30. The Little Stranger (Virago, 2009) / Sarah Waters

Chaired by James Naughtie, the line-up of judges in 2009 include Lucasta Miller, Michael Prodger, John Mullan and Sue Perkins.

The longlist will be announced on July 28, 2009, with the shortlist announcement on September 8, 2009, and the announcement of the winner will be made on October 6, 2009.