OK, so this is the longlist in full - and as you can see, your guesses were pretty much as bad as mine. Plaudits to those who namechecked Pete Ho Davies and AN Wilson; commiserations to those (and I count myself among your number) who really didn't have a clue. As I've said in the news story, this is by far the most low-key longlist we've seen for ages - but actually, after the parade of literary luminaries and general hoopla of the last few years, I'm finding this quiet, unassuming list rather restful. It's excitement derives not from the famous names, but from the fact that I've yet to read so many of books on the list, and from what I've discovered of them this afternoon, I'm looking forward to adding them to my to-read pile - a pleasing return to what the prize was designed to do in the first place. Peter Ho Davies and Michael Redhill look particularly intriguing to me - what do you think?
The list
Darkmans by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate) Self Help by Edward Docx (Picador) The Gift Of Rain by Tan Twan Eng (Myrmidon) The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape) The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton) The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (Sceptre) Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray) Gifted by Nikita Lalwani (Viking) On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, (Jonathan Cape) What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn (Tindal Street) Consolation by Michael Redhill (William Heinemann) Animal's People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster) Winnie & Wolf by AN Wilson (Hutchinson)
