Thursday, July 30, 2015

Five Americans On Booker Prize Longlist

Publishers Lunch


The longlist for the Booker Prize was announced Wednesday morning, including titles by five American authors -- A LITTLE LIFE (Doubleday/Picador) by Hanya Yanagihara, A SPOONFUL OF BLUE THREAD by Anne Tyler (Knopf/Chatto & Windus), LILA by Marilynne Robinson (FSG/Virago), THE MOOR'S ACCOUNT by Laila Lalami (Pantheon/Periscope) -- as well as agent Bill Clegg's forthcoming debut novel DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY (Scout Press/Jonathan Cape).

Only one title, The Chimes by Anna Smaill, does not have an announced US publisher. Four independent publishers have titles on the longlist, including Garnet Publishing's Periscope imprint, Pushkin Press's One imprint, both of which appear for the first time. As for large publishers, PRH imprint Jonathan Cape landed three authors on the longlist. In a statement Booker chair Michael Wood said: "We had a great time choosing this list. Discussions weren’t always peaceful, but they were always very friendly. We were lucky in our companions and the submissions were extraordinary. The longlist could have been twice as long, but we’re more than happy with our final choice. The range of different performances and forms of these novels is amazing. All of them do something exciting with the language they have chosen to use."

Bear in mind, seven of these books ultimately will not be nominated for the Booker. The shortlist will be announced September 15, and the winner will be named on October 13. The full Booker longlist also includes:

Anne Enright, The Green Road (Norton/Jonathan Cape)
Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings (Riverhead/Oneworld)
Tom McCarthy, Satin Island (Knopf/Jonathan Cape)
Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen (Little, Brown/ONE)
Andrew O'Hagan, The Illuminations (HMH/Faber & Faber)
Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways (Knopf/Picador)

No comments: