For the first time, the Booker Prize judging panel has made public the longlist of books from which the shortlist and eventual winner will be selected. South Africa’s Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer has had her new novel, The Pickup, longlisted, but, controversially, Salman Rushdie’s new novel, Fury, has been ignored.
The chairperson of the judging panel, former secretary of state for education, Kenneth Baker, believes revealing the longlist will put an end to speculation over how it is compiled.
“I am very glad my fellow judges have agreed unanimously to produce an official longlist for the first time ever,” he said. “We hope the list will highlight the wide-ranging depth and quality of books submitted for this year’s Booker.”
British publishers are allowed to submit two books for consideration. Out of those submitted, past Booker Prize-winners and authors shortlisted in the past 10 years automatically go forward to the longlist.
This year’s list includes Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass, the final part of his Dark Materials trilogy and believed to be the first ever children’s book longlisted for the prize. Although Pullman is considered to be a crossover writer with a cult following among adults and children alike, his inclusion on the Booker longlist indicates a growing trend for children’s books to be taken seriously as literary fiction. This was evident in the decision of the Whitbread Prize committee two years ago to allow its children’s book winner, JK Rowling, to go forward for the overall Book of the Year prize.
The longlist also sees established writers such as Ian McEwan, Beryl Bainbridge and VS Naipaul competing for a prestigious shortlist place with first novelists Manil Suri and Rachel Seiffert.
Rushdie, whose new novel, Fury, has just been published, is once again notable by his absence. He won the prize in 1981 for Midnight’s Children, which also got the “Booker of Bookers”, a vote on the best Booker winner of its 25-year history, in celebration of that quarter-century anniversary. Rushdie’s subsequent novels have all been ignored by the Booker.
The judging panel, which includes novelist and critic Philip Hensher, literary editor of the Daily Telegraph Kate Summerscale, novelist Michèle Roberts and Professor Rory Watson, will now whittle the selection down to a shortlist of six by September 18. The winner will then be announced on October 17. The winning author will pick up a cheque for £21 000 while the five runners-up each receive a cheque for £1 000.
Bainbridge, who has been shortlisted several times, is the current favourite to win.