The longlist for this year's Man Booker Prize is probably the strongest for many a year. While no Australians feature, it does include the long-awaited second novel by Arundhati Roy, who won 20 years ago with The God of Small Things, Colson Whitehead, this year's Pulitzer Prize winner, and the acclaimed Lincoln in the Bardo, the first novel by the writer who dazzled this year's Sydney Writers' Festival, George Saunders.
And in an entirely coincidental irony, on the day US President Donald Trump announced that transgender soldiers would in future be unable to serve in the US military, Sebastian Barry's Costa Award-winning Days without End, which features a cross-dressing Irish boy and his male lover serving in the Union army during the American Civil War, is on the list.
![Arundhati Roy's long-awaited second novel, <i>The Ministry of Utmost Happiness</I>, has her back in contention for a ...](http://web.archive.org./web/20170728045214im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/m/3/r/p/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxjnek.png/1501118005009.jpg)
Five writers have been shortlisted previously for the £50,000 prize ($82,000) – Barry, Roy, Mohsin Hamid, Ali Smith, and Zadie Smith. Debut novelists listed are Saunders, Fiona Mozley and Emily Fridlund.
Chair of the judges Baroness Lola Young said: "Only when we'd finally selected our 13 novels did we fully realise the huge energy, imagination and variety in them as a group. 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."
The full longlist: 4 3 2 1, Paul Auster (US); Days Without End, Sebastian Barry (Ireland); History of Wolves, Emily Fridlund (US); Exit West, Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan-Britain); Solar Bones, Mike McCormack (Ireland); Reservoir 13, Jon McGregor (Britain); Elmet, Fiona Mozley (Britain); The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy (India); Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders (US); Home Fire, Kamila Shamsie (Britain-Pakistan); Autumn, Ali Smith (Britain); Swing Time, Zadie Smith (Britain), and The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead (US).
The shortlist will be announced on September 13 and the winner on October 17. Last year's winner, Paul Beatty, was the first American writer to win the Booker.