The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser (A&U) and A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz (Hamish Hamilton) are among the titles longlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize.

The longlist of 13 books, chosen from 112 entries, are:

• A Case of Exploding Mangoes (Mohammed Hanif, Random House)
• Child 44 (Tom Rob Smith, S&S)
• The Clothes on Their Backs (Linda Grant, Little, Brown)
• The Enchantress of Florence (Salman Rushdie, Vintage)
• A Fraction of the Whole (Steve Toltz, Hamish Hamilton)
• From A to X (John Berger, Verso)
• Girl in a Blue Dress (Gaynor Arnold, Tindal Street Press) 
• The Lost Dog (Michelle de Kretser, A&U)
• Netherland (Joseph O'Neill, Fourth Estate)
• The Northern Clemency (Philip Hensher, HarperCollins)
• Sea of Poppies (Amitav Ghosh, John Murray)   
• The Secret Scripture (Sebastian Barry, Faber & Faber)
• The White Tiger (Aravind Adiga, Atlantic Books)

‘With a notable degree of consensus, the five Man Booker judges decided on their longlist of 13 books,' said chair of judges, Michael Portillo. ‘The judges are pleased with the geographical balance of the longlist with writers from Pakistan, India, Australia, Ireland and UK. We also are happy with the interesting mix of books, five first novels and two novels by former winners. The list covers an extraordinary variety of writing. Still two qualities emerge this year: large-scale narrative and the striking use of humour.'

De Kretser's novel has already won the overall award at this year's NSW Premier's Literary Awards and the ALS Gold Medal.

The judges that make up this year's judging panel have also been announced. They are Michael Portillo, former MP and cabinet minister and now editor of Granta, Alex Clark; novelist Louise Doughty; James Heneage, founder of Ottakar's bookshops and TV and radio broadcaster Hardeep Singh Kohli.

The shortlist will be announced on 9 September, and the winner on 14 October.

http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2008/07/09010/

This article from Thorpe Bowker's Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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