Man Booker 2014 longlist announced – and there are a few surprises
The 13 novels longlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize have just been announced. As expected, the new rules mean there is a heavy presence by American authors. Surprisingly though these are not the big hitters we were expecting – Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch didn’t make it even though it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction earlier this year. Dave Eggers didn’t get listed either, though perhaps that’s not surprising since the critical response to Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? was, shall we say, lukewarm. The best known name among the Americans is Karen Jay Fowler with We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Based on my experience of reading her best selling title, The Jane Austen Book Club I am surprised to find her on the list and honestly can’t see her getting any further. Delighted though to see Neel Mukherjee on the list with The Lives of Others – I reviewed this recently and enjoyed it so much I nominated it for the Guardian’s Not the Booker Award. Hope he gets through to the next round..
Disappointingly few Commonwealth writers make it this year, in distinct contrast to the 2013 award longlist. Instead we have six novels from Britain, one from Australia, one from Ireland plus the five from USA.
Chairman of the judges AC Grayling says that the lack of Commonwealth writers on the list was a reflection of the choices made by publishers when they decided what to submit. The Daily Telegraph quotes him as follows:.
“It looks as though the publishers have put forward a number of American authors slightly at the expense of Commonwealth writers.
“But I do think this is something that will adjust itself very quickly. It’s almost certainly the publishers feeling their way with American authors and I’m quite sure that will right itself,” he said.
That comment doesn’t quite stack up for me since the press release issued by the Man Booker team says there were 31 Commonwealth submissions this year compared with 43 last year. Ok, it’s a drop but not a big falling off. The key here is however that 44 titles were entered which wouldn’t have been eligible until the rule change so we are certainly seeking a skewing of the list. I hope Grayling proves right and this should settle down in future years since one of the most valuable aspects for me of the Booker was the way it highlighted lesser known authors from countries whose literature doesn’t get much visibiity otherwise.
The Man Booker Prize 2014 longlist
Joshua Ferris (USA) To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
Richard Flanagan (Australia): The narrow Road to the Deep North
Karen Joy Fowler (USA): We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Siri Hustvedt (USA): The Blazing World
Howard Jacobson (British): J
Paul Kingsnorth – The Wake. A novel published through crowd-funding
David Mitchell (Britain): The Bone Clocks
Neel Mukherjee (British): The Lives of Others. Although born in Calcutta, the Booker lists him as British
David Nicholls (British): Us
Joseph O’Neill (USA): The Dog
Richard Powers (USA) Orfeo
Ali Smith (British): How To Be Both
Niall Williams (Eire) – History of the Rain
I’m off to the library now to see which of these I can get. If last year’s experience is anything to judge by there won’t be that many available.
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And no Canadians!! That doesn’t often happen. Let’s blame the Americans.
Well they get blamed for everything else so one more complaint against them will not harm I’m sure
and I had such a hard time with Ali Smith’s There But For The, even though I love original books, ok maybe because I listened to it. Not sure I’m ready to try the one here listed
I’ve read only Brick Lane so I am not accustomed to her style. I think she will be a strong contender so I plan to read this, though unlikely to do so before the award is announced
I listened to There But For The, I should probably have read it instead, maybe better. though I can see the new one has also this thing about dialogs, no dialog punctuation per se, instead always adding he said, she said, which totally drove me nuts when listening to her previous book
I haven’t read Fowler but her book did get lots of buzz when it came out. It is an interesting list. Sad to see no one from Canada on it though.
Maybe they will win some medals at the Commonwealth Games Stefanie. Not quite the same I know but it might help a bit with national pride
I’m looking forward to reading Us and The Lives of Others.
The Lives of Others is well worth reading – here is my review http://bookertalk.com/2014/07/15/the-lives-of-others-by-neel-mukherjee/
Well it’s a bit safe list this time some old faithful a couple of middling American writers powers and Flanagan are the two that jump out at me
It is a bit on the safe side Stu.
The most interesting thing about this list is that I’ve barely even heard of most of these books much less read them. At least one (David Mitchell) hasn’t even been published yet. i fear, as expected, the Booker has completely lost its way, though it’s done it even more quickly and completely than I anticipated. The one bright thing is that The Goldfinch isn’t on the list – not just because I personally didn’t rate it highly, but because to have the same book win the Booker as the Pulitzer would make the Booker even less relevant than it seems intent on making itself.
I’ll wait to see what’s shortlisted, but I doubt I’ll be rushing to read the shortlist this year…
You are not the first person I have heard saying they will not be following the Booker with as much interest this year. That change in the rules could have been a really bit mistake. Ali Smith hasn’t been published yet either – not due out in UK until Sept 4
So much of my faith in the merit of literary prizes evaporated with the IFFP this year. Clearly, the Independent is anything but. Anyway, I agree with you about the difficulty in finding the books at the library, and I thought it was just mine with such trouble. Hope you find a personal favorite from the list.
I did even worse this year than last year in finding the books at the library. One of them is available from another branch, three of them are on order but they don’t have any plans to order the American authors. I’m sure budget cuts are at work here
I commented on your previous post about this before seeing this one. I’m jumping back in, however, to support your point about the Commonwealth writers. I’ve been saying ever since the announcement that US authors would be eligible that it would be the Commonwealth writers who would miss out and for once I’m really annoyed to have been prove to be right. On a day that sees us all coming together to celebrate the spend our of belonging to the Commonwealth family it’s a downright disgrace.
Making the announcement on the day the Commonwealth Games opens just makes the omission even more obvious. I hope the Folio Prize restores the balance a bit – wasn’t it the case that the Folio created the prize purely as a reaction to the Booker new rules?
No, it was created after a year where the Booker judges said they wanted something that would go with a zing and authors went up in arms and devised a prize that claimed it would only award work of real literary merit. It’s open to anything that has been published in English in England. This year the eight strong short list had six American authors on it and two British. No hope there, I’m afraid!
Drat and bother, another avenue closed then.
I’m with you, sad to see the Commonwealth drop off, but glad that the American’s didn’t comprise a full majority. That’s fascinating about Karen Joy Folwer, I only know her from the same novel, I’ll have to read this one to see if it’s different.
One of the librarians I chatted to today said she is half way through it and enjoying it. Since I doubt I’ll get to even half of these before the shortlist announcement, I probably will put this towards the bottom of the list Geoff
This is the first I’ve heard that American authors are now included. It does seem like an unfortunate decision if it means the Commonwealth authors get crowded out. Americans already get enough attention! (Speaking as an American…)
I think a number of people commented at the time the new rules were announced that it really wasn’t a good move and would mean pushing out the smaller publishers and authors. Now they have been proved right
Unfortunately, its the kind of decision that, once made, would be quite hard to go back on.
Very exciting. I loved Richard Powers’ book The Echo Maker though I was disappointed by two of his other books. I also get swept away by David Mitchell, so I am very excited to see these two names on the list. What I like most though is seeing names of writers whose works I don’t know because the list promises there’s something out there new to read.
Thats exactly what I like too Barbara which is why it was so good to see the Commonwealth writers getting a look in with past year’s award.
Like you, I was surprised to see Karen Joy Fowler on this list. I’m happy to see Siri Hustvedt. I wish you luck at the library and hope you will enjoy reading the nominees.
i don’t know Hustvedt except by name so will be taking a look at that one