New Delhi, August 6, 2017: Arundhati Roy, with her latest work of fiction, "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness", has made it to this year's Man Booker Prize longlist. She won the Man Booker Prize for her novel, The God of Small Things, two decades ago, making her the only author on the list to have already won the UK's most prestigious literary prize.
The judges have described Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, as "a rich and vital book [that] comes from the bowels of India"
With a heterogeneity of four UK, four US, two Irish, two UK-Pakistani and one Indian writer; three debuts; and three novels from independent presses, chair of judges, Baroness Lola Young stated, that only after the judges surveyed the 13 remaining contenders, they realized the diversity of their list.
"The longlist showcases a diverse spectrum – not only of voices and literary styles but of protagonists too, in their culture, age, and gender. Nevertheless, we found there was a spirit common to all these novels: though their subject matter might be turbulent, their power and range were life-affirming – a tonic for our times," said Young.
The Booker wasn't open to US authors until 2014. Paul Beatty is the first American author to win the literary prize, for The Sellout last year.
Among others who are featured are, Colson Whitehead who has been nominated for his Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Underground Railroad, Zadie Smith is featured for documenting the relationship between two London girls who meet at a dance class in Swing Time, while Ali Smith has been chosen for novel Autumn.
The 2017 Man Booker prize longlist:
4321 by Paul Auster (Faber & Faber)
Days Without End by Sebastian Barry (Faber & Faber)
History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Orion Books)
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
Solar Bones by Mike McCormack (Canongate)
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (4th Estate, HarperCollins)
Elmet by Fiona Mozley (JM Originals, John Murray)
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (Bloomsbury)
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (Bloomsbury)
Autumn by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
Swing Time by Zadie Smith (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Fleet, Little, Brown)
The judges will now re-read these 13 novels and shortlist six of them, which will be announced on 13 September, before the announcement of the winner of the Man Booker on 17 October.
–prepared by Samiksha Goel of NewsGram. Twitter @goel_samiksha