2016 Man Booker Prize longlist announced
Celebrated South African novelist J.M. Coetzee and U.S. Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout are among the contenders for Britain's prestigious Man Booker Prize for fiction.
Coetzee's "The Schooldays of Jesus" and Strout's "My Name is Lucy Barton" are on the 13-book longlist announced Wednesday.
The Man Booker Prize longlist
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• "The Sellout" by Paul Beatty - U.S.
• "The Schooldays of Jesus" by J.M. Coetzee - South Africa, Australia
• "Serious Sweet" by A.L. Kennedy - U.K.
• "Hot Milk" by Deborah Levy - U.K.
• "His Bloody Project" by Graeme Macrae Burnet - U.K.
• "The North Water" by Ian McGuire - U.K.
• "Hystopia" by David Means - U.S.
• "The Many" by Wyl Menmuir - U.K.
• "Eileen" by Ottessa Moshfegh - U.S.
• "Work Like Any Other" by Virginia Reeves - U.S.
• "My Name Is Lucy Barton" by Elizabeth Strout - U.S.
• "All That Man Is" by David Szalay - Canada, U.K.
• "Do Not Say We Have Nothing" by Madeleine Thien - Canada
The list includes four first-time novelists — David Means, Wyl Menmuir, Otessa Moshfegh and Virginia Reeves — alongside established authors such as A.K. Kennedy and Deborah Levy.
Five American authors made the cut. Previously open only to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, the Booker expanded in 2014 to include all English-language authors. Despite fears of U.S. dominance, there has not yet been an American winner.
Last year's winner was Marlon James, for his celebrated novel, "A Brief History of Seven Killings." James is from Jamaica, and teaches at Macalester College in St. Paul.
The newly announced longlist will be whittled down in the fall: Six finalists will be announced Sept. 13 and the winner of the $65,000 prize will be named Oct. 25.