Jewish Novel Included on Man Booker Longlist
Life in London’s Jewish community and Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, billionaires in China and hard times in Ireland all feature in the novels vying for this year’s Man Booker Prize.
The longlist for the prize, one of the English language’s top fiction awards, names 13 writers from seven countries.
“This is surely the most diverse longlist in Man Booker history: wonderfully various in terms of geography, form, length and subject,” said Robert Macfarlane, a writer and Cambridge University academic who chairs the panel of five judges.
“These 13 outstanding novels range from the traditional to the experimental, from the first century AD to the present day, from 100 pages to 1,000 and from Shanghai to Hendon,” he said in a statement announcing the list.
Selected from 151 titles, it includes authors from Britain, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Ireland.
Two authors, Jim Crace with “Harvest” and Colm Toibin with “The Testament of Mary,” have appeared on the award’s shortlist previously.
The 2013 longlist includes established best-sellers Colum McCann and Jhumpa Lahiri with their latest novels “TransAtlantic” and “The Lowland,” and three debut authors.
The newcomers are Eve Harris with “The Marrying of Chani Kaufman” about an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in London, Zimbabwe’s NoViolet Bulawayo with “We Need New Names” about growing up under Mugabe, and Irish author Donal Ryan with “The Spinning Heart” about the impact of financial crisis on a small town in Ireland.
The latter contrasts with the latest book by award-winning Malaysian lawyer Tash Aw, “Five Star Billionaire,” about the economic boom in China.
Richard House makes the list with “The Kills,” a political thriller spread over four books.
In total seven women are the list, the others being Alison MacLeod with “Unexploded,” Charlotte Mendelson with “Almost English,” Canadian Ruth Ozeki with “A Tale for the Time Being,” and New Zealand’s Eleanor Catton with “The Luminaries.”
The judges will meet again in September to decide a shortlist of six books and the winner will be announced at a ceremony on October 15 in London.
Hilary Mantel won the 2012 prize for “Bring Up the Bodies,” making her the first woman and first Briton to win the coveted award twice. The award dates back to 1969.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
