Three Irish writers make longlist for Booker prize
Ed O'Loughlin has thrilled Penguin Ireland, being the first of the small imprint's writers to make the Booker's longlist
Wednesday July 29 2009
THREE Irish writers are now in the running for the world's leading literary award.
The longlist for the Man Booker prize -- the so-called 'Man Booker Dozen longlist' -- was announced in London yesterday and includes Colm Toibin for his summer bestseller 'Brooklyn', William Trevor for his novel 'Love and Summer', to be published in a few weeks, and former foreign correspondent Ed O'Loughlin's debut novel 'Not Untrue & Not Unkind' which was published earlier this year and is set mainly in Africa.
The inclusion of three Irish writers in a longlist of 13 is a considerable tribute to writing here.
Ed O' Loughlin's inclusion prompted a champagne celebration yesterday evening in the small Stephen's Green offices of his publisher Penguin Ireland.
Delighted
It is believed that this is the first time a small imprint like Penguin Ireland has got an author onto the longlist.
"It is a wonderful achievement, we are delighted for Ed and as publishers we are over the moon," Penguin Ireland MD Michael McLoughlin said.
A total of 132 books, 11 of which were called in by the judges, were considered for the 'Man Booker Dozen' longlist of 13 books.
The chair of judges, James Naughtie, said yesterday that they believe the longlist to be "one of the strongest 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".
The 2009 shortlist will be announced on September 8 in London and the winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2009 will be revealed on October 6 at a dinner at London's Guildhall. It will also be broadcast live on the BBC Ten O'Clock News.
This year's longlist may have been a triumph for the Irish as whole but it was bad news for some big individuals, including the Irish writer Colum McCann, whose new novel 'Let The Great World Spin', coming in September, has attracted some strong reviews in America where it is already out. Other big names who failed to make the cut include Margaret Attwood and William Boyd.
Ed O'Loughlin's book 'Not Untrue & Not Unkind' is about a group of foreign correspondents in Africa, who are more interested in drinking than in the unfortunate people they are writing about. O'Loughlin spent several years reporting from Africa but won't say whether the book mirrors his own experience. "It's fiction," he insists.
The other two Irish books on the longlist are also published by Penguin, through its London imprint Viking.
Toibin's 'Brooklyn' has been a bestseller this summer and tells the story of a young woman who leaves Wexford in the 1950s to make a new life for herself in New York.
William Trevor's new novel 'Love and Summer', which will be published in mid August, is set in a sleepy Irish town and deals with the passions and frustrations of some of the inhabitants over one long summer.
- John Spain Books Editor
