The 2013 Man Booker Prize Longlist

The Man Booker Prize longlist was announced on July 23rd. This distinguished fiction prize is awarded annually to the best English-language novel written by a citizen of the U.K., one of the Commonwealth nations or the Republic of Ireland. The prize is considered to be one of literature's highest honors and encourages the widest possible readership for exceptional literary fiction. The 13 titles recently announced are listed below:

Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton  (U.S. publication expected October 2013)
Harvest by Jim Crace
The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris
The Kills by Richard House
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
Unexploded by Alison MacLeod
Transatlantic by Colum McCann
Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin

A shortlist will be culled from these titles and announced on September 10th. The single winner will announced on October 16th and awarded a prize of £50,000, or approximately $75,000. Not only is the monetary award substantial, but sales of the winning title typically skyrocket after the Booker Prize is awarded.

More than half of the current longlist titles have already been published in the United States, with more scheduled for U.S. publication before the final award is announced. Some recent Booker Prize winners that have enjoyed success in the United States have been Life of Pi, The Sense of an Ending, Wolf Hall, and Bring Up the Bodies.