The Man Booker Prize longlist was announced this week and many litbloggers have posted commentary on the selections. Per the Man Booker site: “The longlist of 19 books was chosen from 112 entries; 95 were submitted for the prize and 17 were called in by the panel of judges.”

I’m familiar with a lot of the titles, having seen them in the catalogues, but haven’t read any of them yet. I have Peter Carey’s Theft: a Love Story and Kate Grenville’s The Secret River on their way to me for review. Nadine Gordimer’s Get a Life and James Robertson’s The Testament of Gideon Mack are already on my pile for review. So now I have to have a look at the rest of the titles and decide which ones I want to try and read prior to the short list announcement on September 14 and the winner being announced on October 10.

Peter Carey – Theft: A Love Story (Faber & Faber)

Kiran Desai – The Inheritance of Loss (Hamish Hamilton)

Robert Edric – Gathering the Water (Doubleday)

Nadine Gordimer – Get a Life (Bloomsbury)

Kate Grenville – The Secret River (Canongate)

M.J. Hyland – Carry Me Down (Canongate)

Howard Jacobson – Kalooki Nights (Jonathan Cape)

James Lasdun – Seven Lies (Jonathan Cape)

Mary Lawson – The Other Side of the Bridge (Chatto & Windus)

Jon McGregor – So Many Ways to Begin (Bloomsbury)

Hisham Matar – In the Country of Men (Viking)

Claire Messud – The Emperor’s Children (Picador)

David Mitchell – Black Swan Green (Sceptre)

Naeem Murr – The Perfect Man (William Heinemann)

Andrew O’Hagan – Be Near Me (Faber & Faber)

James Robertson – The Testament of Gideon Mack (Hamish Hamilton)

Edward St Aubyn – Mother’s Milk (Picador)

Barry Unsworth – The Ruby in her Navel (Hamish Hamilton)

Sarah Waters – The Night Watch (Virago)