With the unveiling of the Booker Prize longlist, the 2009 literary Prize season is officially underway. As usual, we have a mix of exciting new names, relative unknowns and venerable standbys. The big names that will stand out are J.M. Coetzee, a two-time winner of the prize, A.S. Byatt, William Trevor, Colm Toibin, and Hillary Mantel. Also an eye-catching nominee is James Lever whose fictionalized autobiography of a movie star chimp made the cut. My one other observation is that this list feels somewhat less multi-cultural as compared to prior years. Several of the books named appeared on our “most anticipated” lists for the first and second halves of 2009.
All the Booker Prize longlisters are below (with excerpts where available):
- The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt
- Summertime by J.M Coetzee (excerpt)
- The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds
- How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall
- The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey (excerpt)
- Me Cheeta by James Lever (“I’m the real Cheeta“)
- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (excerpt)
- The Glass Room by Simon Mawer (excerpt pdf)
- Not Untrue and Not Unkind by Ed O’Loughlin
- Heliopolis by James Scudamore (excerpt)
- Brooklyn by Colm Toibin (excerpt)
- Love and Summer by William Trevor (excerpt)
- The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (excerpt pdf)
