Wednesday, August 3, 2011

2011 Booker Prize Longlist

My apologies for being woefully late in posting this.  I was on holiday at the time ...

The 2011 Booker Prize longlist was announced on July 26.  The nominees are:
  • Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending 
  • Sebastian Barry On Canaan's Side 
  • Carol Birch Jamrach's Menagerie 
  • Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers 
  • Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues 
  • Yvvette Edwards A Cupboard Full of Coats  
  • Alan Hollinghurst The Stranger's Child 
  • Stephen Kelman Pigeon English  
  • Patrick McGuinness The Last Hundred Days 
  • A.D. Miller Snowdrops 
  • Alison Pick Far to Go 
  • Jane Rogers The Testament of Jessie Lamb  
  • D.J. Taylor Derby Day
The list includes one former prize winner, two previously shortlisted authors, one longlisted author, four first time novelists, three Canadian writers, and three publishers new to the prize.  Whew!  The shortlist will be announced on September 6 and the winner on October 18.

There's been considerable coverage in the press and on the blogs.  Here are two links I found useful:
Have you read any of these books?  Tell us what you thought!  And if you've written a review, please cross-post it here, or comment on this post with a link.

3 comments:

  1. I've just ordered 11 of the 13 online so will be joining in as soon as the packages start arriving, and I will be attempting to get through the whole long list - extremely unlikely that I'll do so before the shortlist is announced on September 6 - and still unlikely I'll have them all completed before the winner's announced on October 18. Great challenge and thanks again Laura.

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  2. Wow Tony, you have your work cut out for you! I read a blog post just after the prize announcement where someone had done the math: if you read 48 pages per day you could read the entire longlist by October 18. Of course you would have had to get started right away ... good luck !

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  3. Patrick McGuinness' "The Last Hundred Days" is on back order but the remaining 12 books the total is 4064 pages (from Julian Barnes' 160 through to Alan Hollinghurst's 576). By my calcs that is 57 pages a day if I start now!!!! And none have arrived on the doorstep - Ouch!!! I must admit I'm not really a fan of Hollingurst either so that 576 pages is going to be a struggle.

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