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Today marked a historic moment for the Man Booker Prize, as it announced its first global longlist. For the first time in its 46 year history, the £50,000 prize has been opened up to writers of any nationality, writing originally in English and published in the UK, as opposed to limiting entries to writers from the Commonwealth and Ireland.
Thirteen novels were named on the longlist for the global prize with Howard Jacobson, David Mitchell and Ali Smith among the British authors, alongside David Nicholls, writer of the bestselling One Day.
Ian McEwan, Martin Amis and Donna Tartt, whose novel The Goldfinch recently earned her a Pulitzer Prize, are among the list's notable exclusions.
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Additionally, only three of the nominees are women. Karen Joy Fowler has been listed for We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Siri Hustvedt for The Blazing World and Ali Smith for How to Be Both.
This year’s chair of judges, philosopher AC Grayling, said they had chosen the books on merit, not the nationality, gender or reputation of the writers. "We said to ourselves, 'the past record is not going to count'. We are not going to give a prize to someone who should have got it years ago. We are just looking at the quality of the books by themselves."The shortlist of six books will be announced on Tuesday 9 September with the 2014 winner announcement broadcasted by the BBC, from London’s Guildhall on Tuesday 14 October.
The 2014 Man Booker Longlist in Full
Karen Joy Fowler – We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Siri Hustvedt – The Blazing World
Ali Smith – How to Be Both
Joshua Ferris – To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
Richard Flanagan – The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Howard Jacobson – J
Paul Kingsnorth – The Wake
David Mitchell – The Bone Clocks
Neel Mukherjee – The Lives of Others
David Nicholls – Us
Joseph O'Neill – The Dog
Richard Powers – Orfeo
Niall Williams – History of the Rain
Congratulations to all of the longlisted authors!