In the fourth year that the Booker Prize has been open to U.S. authors, four American authors again make the longlist, including National Book Award and Pulitzer-winner Colson Whithead. Arundhati Roy is the lone former winner on the list. Notable names like George Saunders, Paul Auster, Zadie Smith and Mohsin Hamid make for formidable competition alongside three debut novels.
All the Booker Prize longlisters are below (with bonus links where available):
- 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster (Free Speech Is a Black-and-White Issue: The Millions Interviews Paul Auster)
- Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
- History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund (A Classic Nightmare: On Emily Fridlund’s History of Wolves)
- Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (The World-Spanning Humanism of Mohsin Hamid)
- Solar Bones by Mike McCormack
- Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
- Elmet by Fiona Mozley
- The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (In the Between: Lincoln in the Bardo)
- Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
- Autumn by Ali Smith (Wordsmith: The Beguiling Gifts of Ali Smith)
- Swing Time by Zadie Smith (Nameless and Undefined: On Zadie Smith’s Swing Time)
- Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Scars That Never Fade: On Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad)
Great list, though I would love to have seen Sara Baume’s “A Line Made by Walking” included.
Why do people keep referring to Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo as his debut novel? He already published The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil. Ironic considering that you have another article on succinct books!
Exit West should win, overall an excellent list.
Beamish, that is a novella, not a novel.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/novella
Novel vs. novella is a matter of semantics. Many Fremch novels are under 40k words. I think several of Francoise Sagan’s novels are shorter than The Brief and Terrifying Reign…
“Why do people keep referring to Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo as his debut novel?”
Ask him. He says it as much as anyone.
The Booker is increasingly irrelevant as a literary prize, especially since it became open to America, shutting out writers from the Commonwealth. Or perhaps it is just me, maybe I am done with prize lists. Steve Heighton (Canada) and Margaret Drabble (England) wrote (IMO) the best books in 2017.