Media. News and press releases from across Man Group.

23 July 2013

This year’s longlist of 13 books was selected by a panel of five judges chaired by academic, critic and writer Robert Macfarlane. The longlist has been selected from 151 titles, of which 14 were called in by the judging panel.

The 2013 longlist is:

Robert Macfarlane, Chair of judges, comments:

‘This is surely the most diverse longlist in Man Booker history: wonderfully various in terms of geography, form, length and subject. These 13 outstanding novels range from the traditional to the experimental, from the first century AD to the present day, from 100 pages to 1,000 and from Shanghai to Hendon.’

Represented on the 2013 longlist are authors from Britain, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Ireland.

Of the 13, two of the authors have appeared on the shortlist before: Jim Crace was shortlisted for the Booker in 1997 for Quarantine (Viking), while Colm Tóibín has been shortlisted twice: for The Blackwater Lightship in 1999 and in 2004 with The Master.

7 of the 13 authors are women; three are debut authors. Jim Crace is the oldest author on the longlist at 67 and Eleanor Catton is the youngest aged 27.

Three independent publishers make the longlist. Sandstone Press, a small publisher based in Highland Scotland, joins Granta and Canongate. Sandstone made the longlist for the first time in 2011, with Jane Rogers’ The Testament of Jessie Lamb.

The judges will meet again in September to decide the shortlist of six books, which will be announced on Tuesday 10 September at a press conference at the Man Group’s head office. The winner of the 2013 prize will be announced at a winner’s ceremony on Tuesday 15 October from London’s Guildhall, an event broadcast by the BBC on BBC News 24 and the 1o o’clock News on BBC One.

The six shortlisted writers are each awarded £2,500 and presented with a specially commissioned, beautifully hand-bound edition of their book. The winner will receive a further £50,000.

Robert Macfarlane, who was previously a member of the judging panel in 2004, is joined on the 2013 Man Booker Prize for Fiction judging panel by: the renowned broadcaster Martha Kearney; critic, academic and prize-winning biographer, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst; broadcaster, classicist and critic, Natalie Haynes and Stuart Kelly, essayist and former literary editor of Scotland on Sunday.

The Man Booker Prize was first awarded in 1969 and 2013 marks its 45th year. Hilary Mantel made history in 2012 when she won the prize for the second time with Bring up the Bodies, as the first woman and the first British author to win the prize twice. She has since gone on to become the first Man Booker author to enter the official UK Top 50 number one spot with the mass-market edition of Bring Up the Bodies.

A full history of the prize, including an interactive timeline and weekly news round-ups, can be found on the Man Booker Prize website – www.themanbookerprize.com. Daily updates are available on Twitter @ManBookerPrize.