THE 2007 BOOKER PRIZE


The judges for the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction announce their longlist of books in the running for the prize this year.

This longlist of 13 books, the ‘Man Booker Dozen’, was chosen from 110 entries; 92 were submitted for the prize and 18 were called in by the judges.


The longlist is:

Darkmans by Nicola Barker (4th Estate)
Self Help by Edward Docx (Picador)
The Gift Of Rain by Tan Twan Eng (Myrmidon)
The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (Sceptre)
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
Gifted by Nikita Lalwani (Viking)
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn (Tindal Street)
Consolation by Michael Redhill (William Heinemann)
Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster)
Winnie & Wolf by A.N.Wilson (Hutchinson)
Chair of judges, Howard Davies, comments:

“This year’s longlist is very diverse, with four first time novelists as well as some more familiar names. All the books chosen are well-crafted and will appeal to a wide readership.”

2007 judges
The judging panel for the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction is: Howard Davies, Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science; Wendy Cope, poet; Giles Foden, journalist and author; Ruth Scurr, biographer and critic and Imogen Stubbs, actor and writer.

Website launch
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction website has been relaunched to coincide with the longlist announcement. It now includes several new sections including Perspective, an online magazine including author interviews and news, and the debate section where readers can hold interactive debates.

Shortlist
The 2007 shortlist will be announced on Thursday 6th September at a press conference at Man Group’s London office. The winner will be announced on Tuesday 16th October at an awards ceremony at Guildhall, London.

SMC,
I am disappointed that no Nigerian novel made the list.
No other Nigerian novelist has won the Booker Prize since Ben Okri won it.

There is nothing to be disappointed about. The reality is that Nigerian writers have not written intellectually challenging stuff in recent times. Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun was good but not the stuff Booker Prizes are made of. Hopefully, good things will come out of Nigeria soon.

SMC,
You should be on the editorial board of Ayebia.