THE BOOKER LONGLIST

Time to catch up on your reading, dudes and dames....
the 2006 Man Booker Long list is out.

Some usual suspects - Nadine Gordimer, Kate Grenville and Howard Jacobson.

Some names that simply had to be there - Sarah Waters, Peter Carey and David Mitchell.

Some welcome surprises as well - Kiran Desai, Naeem Murr and Hisham Matar.

The full list of 19 titles unfolds like thus:
Peter Carey's 'Theft: A Love Story' (Faber)
Kiran Desai's 'The Inheritance of Loss' (Hamish Hamilton)
Robert Edric's 'Gathering the Water' (Doubleday)
Nadine Gordimer's 'Get a Life' (Bloomsbury)
Kate Grenville's 'The Secret River' (Canongate)
M J Hyland's 'Carry Me Down' (Canongate)
Howard Jacobson's 'Kalooki Nights' (Jonathan Cape)
James Lasdun's 'Seven Lies' (Jonathan Cape)
Mary Lawson's 'The Other Side of the Bridge' (Chatto & Windus)
Jon McGregor's 'So Many Ways to Begin' (Bloomsbury)
Hisham Matar's 'In the Country of Men' (Viking)
Claire Messud's 'The Emperor's Children' (Picador)
David Mitchell's 'Black Swan Green' (Sceptre)
Naeem Murr's 'The Perfect Man' (William Heinemann)
Andrew O'Hagan's 'Be Near Me' (Faber)
James Robertson's 'The Testament of Gideon Mack' (Hamish Hamilton)
Edward St Aubyn's 'Mother's Milk' (Picador)
Barry Unsworth's 'The Ruby in her Navel' (Hamish Hamilton)
Sarah Waters' 'The Night Watch' (Virago)

The shortlist will be announced on 14th September and the winner on 10th October. Still plenty of time to book your bets - hopefully after having read the text.

Would be great to see which publisher got makes it to the finish this year round.