Friday, July 26, 2013

Publishers rush out Man Booker long-listed books

 



     

 25.07.13 | Joshua Farrington - The Bookseller 

 
Publishers are rushing forward publication of as-yet-unreleased novels which were included on this week's longlist for the Man Booker Prize.

Alison McLeod’s Unexploded (Hamish Hamilton), planned for September, will get an “immediate” release. Penguin General sales manager Samantha Fanaken said: “We’d like Alison’s book to get into readers’ hands as quickly as possible.”

The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris (Sandstone Press) has been brought forward to the start of August, and Charlotte Mendelson’s Almost English (Mantle, due 15th August), is likely to hit bookshops early.

Granta said it would also be getting The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton into shops as quickly as possible, despite a scheduled publication date of 5th September. Bloomsbury said it was discussing whether to bring forward Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland, planned for 26th September.

Some booksellers were disappointed that not all of the 13 shortlisted titles were available. Henry Layte, owner of The Book Hive in Norwich, said: “Customers who want to get hold of those books will probably end up pre-ordering them on Amazon, which is a bit annoying.”

Also shortlisted were Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (Fourth Estate), We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo (Chatto & Windus), Harvest by Jim Crace (Picador), TransAtlantic by Colum McCann (Bloomsbury), A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (Canongate), The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan (Doubleday Ireland) and The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín (Viking).

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