The Booker prize longlist: your verdict?

心雪

We're unexpectedly heartened by a Man Booker prize longlist that includes many Guardian books desk favourites. What do you think?

And here we have it: this year's Man Booker longlist – the "Booker dozen", as it is whimsically, not to say tweely, known.

First impressions from the books desk: exciting to see the young and very funny Paul Murray – and where's McEwan? I'm personally pleased that Helen Dunmore made the cut and heartened to see that the Booker judges haven't fallen for the hype about Martin Amis's latest. Across the desk, Justine is delighted that Alan Warner is having his moment, along with Damon Galgut, while Claire has been championing Andrea Levy for months. Michelle is happy to see Tom McCarthy on the list, despite the mixed reviews for C. David Mitchell's Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet has a fan in Richard so there's relief from that quarter that the high expectations that he would be longlisted weren't disappointed.   No suprises that Christos Tsiolkas is up there with the much talked-about The Slap, but where are the first-timers?

We'll have a full story from Mark Brown very shortly, and will round up extracts from each of the novels which will be up on the site by tomorrow, but meanwhile, what are your thoughts?

The Booker longlist in full (click the title to read a review):

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

Room by Emma Donoghue (Pan MacMillan - Picador)

The Betrayal by Helen   Dunmore (Penguin - Fig Tree)

In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut (Grove Atlantic - Atlantic Books)

The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson  (Bloomsbury)

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

C by Tom McCarthy (Random House - Jonathan Cape)

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

February by Lisa Moore (Random House - Chatto & Windus)

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (Penguin - Hamish Hamilton)

Trespass by Rose Tremain (Random House - Chatto & Windus)

The Slap  by Christos Tsiolkas (Grove Atlantic - Tuskar Rock)

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

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News from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/ ... oker-prize-longlist