Zadie Smith, who was last nominated for the Booker Prize in 2005 for On Beauty, returns to the list with Swing Time.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The longlist for this year's Man Booker Prize, arguably the most prestigious literary award in the English-speaking world, was announced on Wednesday.
It's an impressive collection of talent, with nominees ranging from Pulitzer Prize-winner Colson Whitehead to literary legend Paul Auster to former winner Arundhati Roy.
Unlike 2016, when Madeleine Thien and David Szalay were longlisted (and eventually shortlisted) for the £50,000 prize, no Canadian authors were included on this year's list.
Scottish writer Ali Smith is nominated for a fourth time for her novel Autumn, while Ireland's Sebastian Barry, who has been shortlisted twice before, and made the longlist on another occasion, is nominated for Days Without End.
Jon McGregor secured his third appearance on the longlist on the strength of Reservoir 13, although the British writer has never been shortlisted.
This year's longlist features four American writers, all making their first apperances: Emily Fridlund for her debut novel, History of Wolves; Paul Auster for 4 3 2 1, which could almost be described as a quartet of novels about the same person; celebrated short-story writer George Saunders for Lincoln in the Bardo, his long-awaited debut novel; and Colson Whitehead for The Underground Railroad, which has been collecting prizes like a child collects stamps since it was published last summer.
Zadie Smith, who was last nominated for the Booker Prize in 2005 for On Beauty, returns to the list with Swing Time, while Pakistan's Mohsin Hamid, who was a finalist in 2007 for The Reluctant Fundamentalist, was recognized for his critically-acclaimed Exit West. Another Pakistani writer, Kamila Shamsie, made the longlist thanks to her novel Home Fire.
The other nominees are 29-year-old Fiona Mozley for her debut novel, Elmet; Irish writer Mike McCormack for Solar Bones, an experimental novel written in a single sentence; and Arundhati Roy for her second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Roy's debut novel, The God of Small Things, won the prize in 1997.
Last year Paul Beatty, author of The Sellout, became the first American author to win the Booker Prize, although U.S. authors have only been eligible since 2014.
Mark Medley