The Booker’s Dozen: The 2011 Booker Longlist

With the unveiling of the Booker Prize longlist, the 2011 literary Prize season is officially underway. As is usually the case, the list offers a mix of exciting new names, relative unknowns and beloved standbys. The lone past winner (for The Line of Beauty) is Alan Hollinghurst, and longlisters Sebastian Barry and Julian Barnes have gotten shortlist nods in the past. At the other end of the experience specturm, four debut novelists make the list: Stephen Kelman, A.D. Miller, Yvvette Edwards, and Patrick McGuinness.

All the Booker Prize longlisters are below (with excerpts where available):

• The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (excerpt)
• On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry (excerpt [pdf])
• Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch (excerpt)
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt (excerpt)
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
• A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette Edwards
• The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst (excerpt)
• Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman (excerpt)
• The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness
• Snowdrops by A.D. Miller (Staff Pick)
• Far to Go by Alison Pick
• The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers
• Derby Day by D.J. Taylor