The six books, selected from the Man Booker Prize longlist of 13, are:

Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber and Faber)

Emma Donoghue Room (Picador – Pan Macmillan)

Damon Galgut In a Strange Room (Atlantic Books – Grove Atlantic)

Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury)

Andrea Levy The Long Song (Headline Review -
Headline Publishing Group)

Tom McCarthy C (Jonathan Cape – Random House)

Read the full press release here.

The judges for the 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction today, Tuesday 27 July, announce the longlist for the prize, the leading literary award in the English speaking world.

A total of 138 books, 14 of which were called in by the judges, were considered for the ‘Man Booker Dozen’ longlist of 13 books.

The longlist includes:

Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber and Faber)

Emma Donoghue Room (Pan MacMillan – Picador)

Helen Dunmore The Betrayal (Penguin – Fig Tree)

Damon Galgut In a Strange Room (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Books)

Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury)

Andrea Levy The Long Song
(Headline Publishing Group – Headline Review)

Tom McCarthy C (Random House – Jonathan Cape)

David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Hodder & Stoughton – Sceptre)

Lisa Moore February (Random House – Chatto & Windus)

Paul Murray Skippy Dies (Penguin – Hamish Hamilton)

Rose Tremain Trespass (Random House – Chatto & Windus)

Christos Tsiolkas The Slap (Grove Atlantic – Tuskar Rock)

Alan Warner The Stars in the Bright Sky
(Random House – Jonathan Cape)

The chair of judges, Andrew Motion, comments:

“Here are thirteen exceptional novels – books we have chosen for their intrinsic quality, without reference to the past work of their authors. Wide-ranging in their geography and their concern, they tell powerful stories which make the familiar strange and cover an enormous range of history and feeling. We feel confident that they will provoke and entertain.”

Peter Carey is one of only two authors to have won the prize twice, in 1988 for Oscar and Lucinda and 2001 for True History of the Kelly Gang. In 1985 his book Illywhacker was shortlisted for the prize and Theft: A Love Story was longlisted in 2006.

Three authors have been shortlisted before: David Mitchell (twice shortlisted in 2001 for number9dream and in 2004 for Cloud Atlas), Damon Galgut (in 2003 for The Good Doctor) and Rose Tremain (shortlisted in 1989 for Restoration). She was also a judge for the Booker Prize in 1988 and 2000.

Howard Jacobson has been longlisted twice for his book Kalooki Nights in 2006 and for Who’s Sorry Now? in 2002.

The 2010 shortlist will be announced on Tuesday 7 September at a press conference at Man Group’s London headquarters. The winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2010 will be revealed on Tuesday 12 October at a dinner at London’s Guildhall and will be broadcast on the BBC Ten O’Clock News.

The winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction will receive £50,000 and can look forward to greatly increased sales and worldwide recognition. Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, will receive £2,500 and a designer bound edition of their shortlisted book.

Chaired by Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate, the 2010 judges are Rosie Blau, Literary Editor of the Financial Times; Deborah Bull, formerly a dancer, now Creative Director of the Royal Opera House as well as a writer and broadcaster; Tom Sutcliffe, journalist, broadcaster and author and Frances Wilson, biographer and critic.

Other interesting lists include:

• Michiko Kakutani’s Top 10 Books of 2009
• Janet Maslin’s Top 10 Books of 2009
• Dwight Garner’s Top 10 Books of 2009
• Art and Architecture Books
• 2009 Graphic Novels
• Gift Books

A S Byatt The Children’s Book (Random House, Chatto and Windus)

J M Coetzee Summertime (Random House, Harvill Secker)

Adam Foulds The Quickening Maze (Random House, Jonathan Cape)

Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall (HarperCollins, Fourth Estate)

Simon Mawer The Glass Room (Little, Brown)

Sarah Waters The Little Stranger (Little, Brown, Virago)

One of the reasons that I wrote this novel is that before Margaret ever got ill, I had always wanted to write a novel about a long marriage, especially when I realized in middle age that I had fallen very deeply back in love with my wife in a way that was quite different than the sort of early days of infatuation. And I realized I couldn’t write a novel about that because it was a terrible invasion of her privacy and also because it’s very difficult to write about something that’s still ongoing, a relationship.

After she died, it occurred to me that I could go back to this subject because I would no longer be invading her privacy. And also, I could sit down and look at the marriage, which is really what grief was making me do anyway.

In his first novel in 13 years, Yglesias delves into a semi-autobiographical account of a long and often contentious marriage of Enrique Sabas and his wife, Margaret. Alternating between the romantic beginnings of their early courtship and the heart-wrenching final weeks of Margaret’s battle with cancer, the story explores the complexities of a relationship that spanned almost 30 years.

Yglesias recounts Sabas’ internal struggles—professional insecurities, infidelity, resentment, and intense love—in bold and often painful detail. In the end, the reader is left with a graceful yet raw tale of illness, struggle, loss, and the resilience of love.

Gabrielle Euvino delivers a humorous, and surprisingly practical, guide to the Italian language for travelers. With chapters including “Horny Italian,” “Angry Italian,” and “Sporty Italian,” she arms non-native speakers with the phrases that traditional travel guides fail to offer.

The book is arranged logically and interspersed with whimsical illustrations and text boxes of useful tidbits and facts. This slim edition is not meant to serve as a phrasebook—in fact, one of its shortcomings is the lack of an index—but rather provides the modern tourist with a bit of cultural cachet.

Euvino does warn, however that “I cannot as author be held responsible for any slaps, punches, kicks, or curses that may result from misuse of this book.” So slang with care!

“At the heart of the book it is something existential,”…”It’s a quest to break out of the circumstances you find yourself in – it’s a quest for freedom.”

via BBC NEWS | Entertainment | First-time novelist wins Booker

Dolores Gray has wanted to be an astronaut ever since she can remember. She attends shuttle launches with her father, a technician for NASA, keeps a space journal, and follows every tidbit of news about the space program. Dolores navigates the perils of adolescence—facing family conflict, the pressures of fitting in at school, and the budding feelings of first love—amidst a tragedy that shakes her and the local NASA community to the core.

Dean has clearly done her research on the space program, weaving details about NASA and the space program through the book. She paints a compelling portrait of a young girl dealing with difficult emotional issues, but the level of Dolores’ analysis isn’t always believable. Her reactions make her seem wise beyond her years, and while that discerning insight makes for a better read, it tarnishes the credibility of her character. The story might have been more effective if it were written in the third person rather than the first.

Dean’s narrative is not without its flaws, but The Time It Takes to Fall makes for a pleasant and absorbing summertime read.

Curtis Sittenfeld’s new novel, American Wife, is a thinly veiled portrait of first lady Laura Bush’s life. She paints the portrait of Alice Blackwell—a reserved, thoughtful woman who lives her life as a devoted spouse and mother but possesses a strong moral resolve that often runs counter to her role as the wife of a conservative leader. Sittenfeld offers a sympathetic view of Alice, tracing her life from her humble Wisconsin roots through her husband’s years in the White House.

At 576 pages, the book provides detailed insights into some formative events of Alice Blackwell’s life, but leaves the reader wanting, often skipping years at a time. The narrative feels especially incomplete in its coverage of Alice’s early years as a mother, offering surprisingly sparse emotional commentary. This erratic romp through an otherwise compelling storyline makes the novel interesting but sometimes frustrating and unbalanced in scope.

American Wife will be available for sale on September 2, 2008.