So, here's the 2009 longlist in full:
The Children's Book by AS Byatt
Summertime by JM Coetzee
The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds
How to paint a dead Man by Sarah Hall
The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey
Me Cheeta by James Lever
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
Not Untrue & Not Unkind by Ed O'Loughlin
Heliopolis by James Scudamore
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Love and Summer by William Trevor
The Little Stranger Sarah Waters
As expected, this year's big four – Hilary Mantel, AS Byatt, Sarah Waters and Colm Tóibín – all feature, alongside Coetzee, who's a Booker perennial – one of only two authors ever to have won the prize twice. The old hands are balanced by three first-timers, Samantha Harvey, James Lever and Ed O'Loughlin. In fact the list feels fairly balanced altogether, in terms of range of subject, and the fact that there are several strong contenders. Sorry not to see Tobias Hill's The Hidden up there, which I loved; out of the books on the list that I've read, my money's on Wolf Hall – this year could be Mantel's moment, I think (listen to her reading from Wolf Hall, and talking to Claire Armitstead about it).
First impressions?
