The judges of the 2007 Man Booker Prize announced their longlist of semifinalists yesterday. The annual award, sponsored by Man Group investment firm, awards £50,000 (approximately $101,250) for the best novel of the year by a citizen of the British Commonwealth, Ireland or Zimbabwe. Along with familiar names like Ian McEwan (On Chesil Beach, Jonathan Cape) and A. N. Wilson (Winnie & Wolf, Hutchinson), the list includes four first-time novelists: Tan Twan Eng (The Gift of Rain, Myrmidon), Peter Ho Davies (The Welsh Girl, Sceptre), Nikita Lalwani (Gifted, Viking), and Catherine O’Flynn (What Was Lost, Tindal Street).
The other semifinalists, selected from 110 entries, are Nikola Barker for Darkmans (Fourth Estate), Edward Docx for Self Help (Picador), Ann Enright for The Gathering (Jonathan Cape), Mohsin Hamid for The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Hamish Hamilton), Lloyd Jones for Mister Pip (John Murray), Michael Redhill for Consolation (William Heinemann), and Indra Sinha for Animal’s People (Simon & Schuster).
This year’s judges are Wendy Cope, Howard Davies, Giles Foden, Ruth Scurr, and Imogen Stubbs.
The shortlist will be announced on September 6, and the winner will be named on October 16 at an awards ceremony in Guildhall, London.
