Despite some strong Irish contenders for this year's Man Booker Prize, no Irish authors have made it onto the awards longlist which was announced today.
However, the 13 novels that were selected include work from some heavyweight names including Nobel Laureate and two-time Man Booker winner J. M Coetzee, former Man Booker nominee Deborah Levy, and well known author A.L Kennedy.
Irish hopes had rested on the likes of Kevin Barry for his acclaimed novel Beatlebone, which is a fictional account of a disillusioned John Lennon returning to an island he bought off the West coast of Ireland in 1978, while as yet unpublished books from Eimear McBride (The Lesser Bohemians) and Donal Ryan (All We Shall Know) were also thought to stand a chance of impressing the panel of judges.
Instead they opted to select novels predominantly from UK and US authors, with the chair of the judges Amanda Foreman calling it "is a very exciting year" and said that each novel they selected "provoked intense discussion and, at times, passionate debate".
Delighted to announce our #ManBooker2016 longlist! https://t.co/TZIzIlt51n #FinestFiction pic.twitter.com/C4C8VJTDFU
— Man Booker Prize (@ManBookerPrize) July 27, 2016
"From the historical to the contemporary, the satirical to the polemical, the novels in this list come from both established writers and new voices. The writing is uniformly fresh, energetic and important. It is a longlist to be relished", she added.
The UK authors who have been nominated are Serious Sweet by A.L. Kennedy, Hot Milk by Deborah Levy, His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet, The North Water by Ian McGuire and The Many by Wyl Menmuir.
Meanwhile, the US writers who have been selected are Paul Beatty (The Sellout), David Means (Hystopia), Ottessa Moshfegh (Eileen), Virginia Reeves (Work Like Any Other) and Elizabeth Strout (My Name Is Lucy Barton).
The remaining authors on the longlist are J.M. Coetzee who was born in South Africa but is now an Australian citizen for his soon to be published novel The Schooldays of Jesus, David Szalay's All That Man Is and Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Candian Madeleine Thien.
Interestingly there are four debut novels on the list, the majority of which are from the United States: Hystopia, The Many, Eileen and Work Like Any Other.
The Man Booker shortlist of six books will be announced on September 13, followed by an awards ceremony on October 25 where the winner of the £50,000 prize will be named.
