Bookmakers have dubbed David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green as the favourite among 19 novels to be longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize on Monday.
Mitchell, shortlisted for the literature award in 2004, is joined on the list by three former winners — Peter Carey, second-favourite according to betting house William Hill; South African novelist Nadine Gordimer; and Barry Unsworth.
William Hill rates Mitchell’s odds as five to one, followed by Carey’s Theft: A Love Story at six to one. Sarah Waters’s The Night Watch has a seven-to-one chance of winning, with Unsworth’s The Ruby in Her Navel rated at eight to one. Howard Jacobson’s Kalooki Nights has the fifth-best chance of winning at 10 to one.
”Judging the Man Booker Prize puts you through almost as many emotions as there are in the novels,” said Hermione Lee, chairperson of the judges for the award. ”We’ve tried to be careful and critical judges as well as being passionately involved.
”We have many regrets about some of the novels we’ve left off, and we could easily have had a longlist of about 30 books, but we’re delighted by the variety, the originality, the drama and craft, the human interest and the strong voices in this longlist.”
Included in the list is In the Country of Men, Hisham Matar’s debut novel.
On the other side of that coin are Gordimer, who won in 1974; Unsworth, a joint winner in 1992; and Carey, who has won twice, in 1998 and 2001.
Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas was shortlisted in 2004 but was beaten by Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty.
”Many people believe David Mitchell deserved to win with Cloud Atlas and we think he may have better luck second time around,” said Graham Sharpe, a spokesperson for William Hill.
The 19-strong longlist was chosen from a total of 112 books, and will be narrowed once more to a shortlist of six on September 14. The winner, who will also be awarded a £50 000 prize, will be announced on October 10.
Last year’s winner was The Sea by John Banville, with the award helping propel the book to sales of almost 250 000 copies.
The 19 longlisted books are:
1. Peter Carey — Theft: A Love Story
2. Kiran Desai — The Inheritance of Loss
3. Robert Edric — Gathering the Water
4. Nadine Gordimer — Get a Life
5. Kate Grenville — The Secret River
6. MJ Hyland — Carry Me Down
7. Howard Jacobson — Kalooki Nights
8. James Lasdun — Seven Lies
9. Mary Lawson — The Other Side of the Bridge
10. Jon McGregor — So Many Ways to Begin
11. Hisham Matar — In the Country of Men
12. Claire Messud — The Emperor’s Children
13. David Mitchell — Black Swan Green
14. Naeem Murr — The Perfect Man
15. Andrew O’Hagan — Be Near Me
16. James Robertson — The Testament of Gideon Mack
17. Edward St Aubyn — Mother’s Milk
18. Barry Unsworth — The Ruby in Her Navel
19. Sarah Waters — The Night Watch
— AFP