Atwood, Boyd, Franzen, Banville Omitted From Man Booker Longlist

Who didn’t make the cut for the Man Booker Prize longlist? Quite a few big names were surprisingly not included. Former Booker winner Kazuo Ishiguro was expected to make the list for his novel The Buried Giant. John Banville, Jonathan Franzen, William Boyd and Margaret Atwood all have novels forthcoming, none of which was selected. Booker Prize judge Michael Wood said that the panel read 156 books before selecting 13 novels – “the Man Booker Dozen” – and commented that the list “could have been twice as long, but we’re more than happy with our final choice.”

Choosing the 13 novels”was good fun,” said Wood. “Discussions weren’t always peaceful, but they were always very friendly.” The panel has chosen a longlist that represents “many different ways of writing … it is the range of what is going on with the novel that was striking to us.”

BY THE NUMBERS:

6 men
7 women
5 Americans
3 Britons
1 Nigerian
1 Indian
1 Irishwoman
1 Jamaican
1 New Zealander
1 favored to win (Hanya Yanagihara, at 3/1)
1 former winner (Anne Enright)
3 debut novelists
0 Jonathan Franzens