Heavyweights Byatt and Coetzee on Booker longlist
AFP
LONDON- Literary heavyweights AS Byatt and JM Coetzee were named on the 13-strong longlist for the 2009 Booker Prize, released on Tuesday.
Both previous winners of the prestigious award, Byatt was nominated for "The Children's Book" and Coetzee for his novel "Summertime."
Judges' chair and broadcaster James Naughtie praised the list as one of the strongest in "recent memory" with a strong span of styles and themes.
"We believe it to be one of the strongest lists in recent memory, with two former winners, four past-shortlisted writers, three first-time novelists and a span of styles and themes that make this an outstandingly rich fictional mix."
One of the literary world's most prestigious awards, the annual Booker Prize goes to the best work of fiction by an author from the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.
Byatt, who took the award in 1990 for "Possession," has been nominated for his portrait of childhood at the end of the Victorian era.
Coetzee, the 2003 Nobel Prize winner for literature who lives in Australia, has twice won the Booker for "Disgrace" in 1999 and "Life & Times of Michael K" in 1983.
Others longlisted are Irish writer Colm Toibin, who has been twice shortlisted for the prize in 1999 and 2004 only to miss out, for his book "Brooklyn" about belonging.
First timers Samantha Harvey for "The Wilderness", Ed O'Loughlin for "Not Untrue & Not Unkind" and James Lever for "Me Cheeta" have also been chosen after 132 books were considered.
A Booker Prize nomination all but guarantees worldwide readership and an upsurge in book sales. The "White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga won in 2008.
A total of 42 books have won the prize since it was launched in 1969, because the award was shared in 1974 and 1992. Contenders must have been published in the past year and originally written in English.
The shortlist will be revealed on September 8 and the winner announced at an awards ceremony in London's Guildhall on October 6.
Booker Prize 2009 longlist:
AS Byatt "The Children's Book"
J M Coetzee "Summertime"
Adam Foulds "The Quickening Maze"
Sarah Hall "How to paint a dead man"
Samantha Harvey "The Wilderness"
James Lever "Me Cheeta"
Hilary Mantel "Wolf Hall"
Simon Mawer "The Glass Room"
Ed O'Loughlin "Not Untrue & Not Unkind"
James Scudamore "Heliopolis"
Colm Toibin "Brooklyn"
William Trevor "Love and Summer"
Sarah Waters "The Little Stranger"
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