The judging panel for the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction today (Monday 14th August) announces the longlist of books for this year.

The longlist of 19 books was chosen from 112 entries; 95 were submitted for the prize and 17 were called in by the panel of judges.

Chair of judges, Hermione Lee, comments:

"Judging the Man Booker Prize puts you through almost as many emotions as there are in the novels. We’ve tried to be careful and critical judges as well as being passionately involved. We have many regrets about some of the novels we’ve left off, and we could easily have had a longlist of about 30 books, but we’re delighted with the variety, the originality, the drama and craft, the human interest and the strong voices in this longlist. It’s a list in which famous established novelists rub shoulders with little known newcomers. We hope that people will leap at it for their late summer reading and make up their own shortlist.”

The judging panel for the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction is: Hermione Lee (Chair); Simon Armitage, poet and novelist; Candia McWilliam, award winning novelist; critic Anthony Quinn and actor Fiona Shaw.
The 2006 shortlist will be announced on Thursday 14th September at a press conference at Man Group’s London office. The winner will be announced on Tuesday 10th October at an awards ceremony at Guildhall, London.

The longlist for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006 is as follows;

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

-ends-

For those of you who would like to know a little bit about Singapore without the Tourism board overtones or biasness, I present to you Notes from an Even Smaller Island and Scribbles from the Same Island by Neil Humphrey.

Notes from an Even Smaller Island

Price: US$7.72 (S$12.90*)
Region: Singapore
Format: Paperback, 232 pages
Published: 2001, Singapore, 1st Edition

About This Book

This light-hearted observation of Singapore by a young Dagenham (Essex)-born English school teacher/journalist enters areas of Singaporean life not normally highlighted in tourist guidebooks. The resulting picture is comic, shrewd, relaxed and highly coloured, and at times infuriatingly provocative!

Scribbles from the Same Island

Price: US$7.72 (S$12.90*)
Region: Singapore
Format: Paperback, 224 pages
Published: 2003, Singapore, 1st Edition

About This Book

Singapore's most famous Toa Payoh HDB flat-dwelling ang moh, Neil Humphreys is back with more with 'Scribbles from the Same Island', after a successful first book, Notes From An Even Smaller Island. Expect to find more of his take on innocuous subjects made hilarious through his witty observations. 'Scribbles' is a collection of Neil Humphreys' column published in WEEKEND TODAY and includes several short stories specially written for this book.