The 2013 National Book Award Longlists

The 2013 National Book Award Longlists were announced yesterday. Below you'll find the selected titles in the fiction category. If you want to view the full lists you can visit the official site. The shortlist is expected to be revealed by October 16 and the winners on November 20.

Tom Drury - Pacific
Elizabeth Graver - The End of the Point
Rachel Kushner - The Flamethrowers
Jhumpa Lahiri - The Lowland
Anthony Marra - A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
James McBride - The Good Lord Bird
Alice McDermott - Someone
Thomas Pynchon - Bleeding Edge
George Saunders - Tenth of December
Joan Silber - Fools

The Man Booker Shortlist 2013

The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize has been announced today. According to the bookies the favorite book to win is Jim Crace's Harvest. One way or another the winner, who will receive £50,000, will be announced on the 15th of October. Here's the shortlist:

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

Harvest by Jim Crace

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín (read my review here)

Man Booker Longlist Announced

The longlist for the Man Booker Prize has been announced today. 13 books have been selected at this stage. The shortlist will be revealed in September and the winner on the 15th of October. Please note that some of these volumes are still to be released. The longlisted books are:

Tash Aw - Five Star Billionaire

NoViolet Bulawayo - We Need New Names

Eleanor Catton - The Luminaries

Jim Crace - Harvest

Eve Harris - The Marrying of Chani Kaufman

Richard House - The Kills

Jhumpa Lahiri - The Lowland 

Alison MacLeod - Unexploded

Colum McCann - TransAtlantic 

Charlotte Mendelson - Almost English 

Ruth Ozeki - A Tale for the Time Being

Donal Ryan - The Spinning Heart 

Colm Tóibín - The Testament of Mary (read my review here)

The Women's prize for fiction shortlist announced

The Women's Prize for fiction (ex-Orange) shortlist has been announced today. Hilary Mantel with "Bring Up the Bodies" could be heading for a hat-trick after winning the Booker and the Costa awards, but according to the experts the prize could very well end up in the hands of A.M. Homes for "May We Be Forgiven". The winner will be announced on the 5th of June. Here's the shortlist:

Kate Atkinson - Life After Life  
    
A.M Homes - May We Be Forgiven         

Barbara Kingsolver - Flight Behaviour    

Hilary Mantel - Bring Up the Bodies        

Maria Semple - Where’d You Go, Bernadette         

Zadie Smith - NW

The Arthur C Clarke and Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse awards shortlists

Two major UK book awards shortlists have been announced today; the ones for the Arthur C Clarke and Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prizes. The talking point when it comes to the first is that there are no female authors included in the list, even though four out of the five judges are female, while everyone seems to be happy with the second one. Here are the lists in full:

The Arthur C Clarke Award

Nod by Adrian Barnes
Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
Intrusion by Ken MacLeod
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

The winner will be announced on the 1st of May.

The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize

Zoo Time by Howard Jacobson
Skios by Michael Frayn
England's Lane by Joseph Connolly
Heartbreak Hotel by Deborah Moggach
Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt

The winner will be announced at the end of May, but no date has been set yet.

The Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist

The Women's Prize for Fiction (ex-Orange) longlist has been announced last night. Twenty books will compete for the prize which will be awarded in June. The longlisted titles are:

Kitty Aldridge - A Trick I Learned From Dead Men

Kate Atkinson - Life After Life

Ros Barber - The Marlowe Papers

Shani Boianjiu - The People of Forever are Not Afraid

Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl (Book review here)

Sheila Heti - How Should A Person Be?

AM Homes - May We Be Forgiven

Barbara Kingsolver - Flight Behaviour

Deborah Copaken Kogan - The Red Book

Hilary Mantel - Bring Up the Bodies

Bonnie Nadzam - Lamb

Emily Perkins - The Forrests

Michèle Roberts - Ignorance

Francesca Segal - The Innocents

Maria Semple - Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Elif Shafak - Honour

Zadie Smith - NW

ML Stedman - The Light Between Oceans

Carrie Tiffany - Mateship with Birds

G. Willow Wilson - Alif the Unseen

Costa Award Shortlists 2012

The shortlists for this year's Costa Awards have been announced yesterday. For the first time two graphic books are included them: Dotter of Her Father's Eyes (a great book, which I have read but did not get to review yet) in the biography category and Days of the Bagnold Summer in the best novel one. The winners will be revealed on January 2. Here are the full lists:

Novel Award shortlist

Hilary Mantel - Bring up the Bodies
Stephen May - Life! Death! Prizes!
James Meek - The Heart Broke In
Joff Winterhart - Days of the Bagnold Summer

First Novel Award shortlist

JW Ironmonger - The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder
Jess Richards - Snake Ropes
Francesca Segal - The Innocents
Benjamin Wood - The Bellwether Revivals 

Biography Award shortlist

Artemis Cooper - Patrick Leigh-Fermor: An Adventure
Selina Guinness - The Crocodile by the Door: The Story of a House, a Farm and a Family
Kate Hubbard - Serving Victoria: Life in the Royal Household
Mary Talbot and Bryan Talbot - Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes

Poetry Award shortlist

Sean Borodale - Bee Journal
Julia Copus - The World’s Two Smallest Humans
Selima Hill - People Who Like Meatballs
Kathleen Jamie - The Overhaul

Children’s Book Award shortlist

Sally Gardner - Maggot Moon
Diana Hendry - The Seeing
Hayley Long - What’s Up with Jody Barton?
Dave Shelton - A Boy and a Bear in a Boat

The UK's National Book Awards Shorlists

The National Book Awards shortlists have been announced yesterday. The winners will be revealed in a ceremony on Tuesday 4 December. Here are the candidates in three of the most important categories. For the rest you can follow this link.

Autobiography/Biography of the Year

My Animals and Other Family by Clare Balding
Patrick Leigh Fermor by Artemis Cooper
Back Story by David Mitchell
Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie
Who I Am by Pete Townshend
Camp David by David Walliams

Popular Fiction Book of the Year

1356 by Bernard Cornwell
The Thread by Victoria Hislop
The Rose Petal Beach by Dorothy Koomson
Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James
Citadel by Kate Mosse
Me Before You by JoJo Moyes

Crime Book of the Year

A Wanted Man by Lee Child
Kind of Cruel by Sophie Hannah
A Question of Identity by Susan Hill
The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz
Perfect People by Peter James
Gods and Beasts by Denise Mina

The 2013 IMPAC Longlist

The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award has unveiled its longlist that includes 154 novels published in English in 2011. I guess the picture above gives you an idea for whose book I'd voting for if I had the chance. But since I don't I've decided to give you the links to the reviews I've written about some of the books that are on the list. Click on the titles to read them.

Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin. Buy here.
The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi-Adler Olsen. Buy here.
On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry. Buy here. My second favorite of last year but just as good as the first.
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman. Buy here.
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht. Buy here. A good book but a badly written review, I have to admit.

Books that I have read but did not have the time to review in English. If you speak Greek you can look them up at my other blog: http://lakisf3.blogspot.com
 
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.
Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar.
Snowdrops by A.D. Miller.
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.
The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje.

If you want to see the full list click here.

Mo Yan wins the Nobel Prize for Literature

It has just been announced that Chinese author Mo Yan has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for 2012.

Mo Yan was born Guan Moye to a peasant family in Gaomi in Shandong Province in 1955. His education ended in 1966 when the Cultural Revolution broke out when he worked as a peasant. He subsequently worked in a factory before joining the army, where he became a member of the cultural department. His main inspiration still remains the Gaomi area though he combines both the urban and the rural and the historical and the present. His pen name means don't speak.

To read more about him visit Wikipedia

Samuel Johnson prize longlist

The Samuel Johnson prize longlist has been announced. The longlisted books are:

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
One on One by Craig Brown
Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis
The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen
Feathers by Thor Hansen
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane
Inside the Centre: The Life of J Robert Oppenheimer by Ray Monk
Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius by Sylvia Nasar
Winter King by Thomas Penn
The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker
The Spanish Holocaust by Paul Preston
Strindberg: A Life by Sue Prideaux
Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

The winner will be revealed on 12 November.

The Hugo Awards

The Hugo Awards have been announced. The winners in some of the categories are:

BEST NOVEL

Among Others by Jo Walton (Tor)

BEST NOVELLA

“The Man Who Bridged the Mist” by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s, September/October 2011)

BEST NOVELETTE

“Six Months, Three Days” by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com)

BEST SHORT STORY

“The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2011)

You can read the full list here.

Edgar Award shortlists announced

The shortlists for the Edgar Awards have been announced yesterday. Below i give you the nominated titles in three major categories:

BEST NOVEL

The Ranger by Ace Atkins

Gone by Mo Hayder

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

1222 by Anne Holt

Field Gray by Philip Kerr

 

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

 

Red on Red by Edward Conlon

Last to Fold by David Duffy

All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen

Bent Road by Lori Roy

Purgatory Chasm by Steve Ulfelder

 

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

 

The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett

The Faces of Angels by Lucretia Grindle

The Dog Sox by Russell Hill

Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley

Vienna Twilight by Frank Tallis

 

The winners will be announced on April 26th. To take a look at the full list visit The Edgar website

2011 National Book Award Winners Announced

The 2011 National Book Award winners were announced late last night. The winners in each category are:


Fiction:

Non-fiction:

Poetry:

Young People's Literature:

Costa Awards Shortlists revealed

The Costa Awards shortlists have been announced last night. Twenty books have been nominated in five different categories. The winner for each category will be announced on the 4th of January and the overall winner, for the book of the year award, will be revealed on the 24th. The nominated books in each category are:

Novel

The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
A Summer of Drowning - John Burnside
Pure - Andrew Miller
My Darling I Wanted to Tell You - Louisa Young

First Novel

City of Bohane - Kevin Barry
The Last Hundred Days - Patrick McGuinness
Tiny Sunbirds Far Away - Christie Watson
Pao - Kerry Young

Biography

Thin Paths: Journeys In and Around an Italian Mountain Village - Julia Blackburn
Henry’s Demons: Living with Schizophrenia - A Father and Son’s Story - Patrick and Henry Cockburn
Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas - Matthew Hollis
Charles Dickens: A Life - Claire Tomalin

Poetry

The Bees - Carol Ann Duffy
Night - David Harsent
Fiere - Jackie Kay
November - Sean O’Brien

Children's Book

Flip - Martyn Bedford
The Unforgotten Coat - Frank Cottrell Boyce
Small Change for Stuart - Lissa Evans
Blood Red Road - Moira Young 

Alan Hollinghurst voted as author of the year in Britain

Alan Hollinghurst whose novel The Stranger's Child was omitted from the Man Booker Prize Shortlist has been voted by 750 book trade experts in the UK as writer of the year. His win has been announced in London on Friday night, along with the names of the other winners of the various categories of The Galaxy National Book awards. Here's the list in full:

Waterstone's UK Author of the Year: The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst (Picador)
Outstanding Achievement award: Jackie Collins
Specsavers popular fiction book of the year: A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French (Penguin)
More popular non-fiction book of the year: How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (Ebury Press)
Crime and thriller of the year: Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson (Doubleday)
Daily Telegraph biography of the year: Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin (Viking)
International author of the year: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair)
Food and drink book of the year: The Good Cook by Simon Hopkinson (BBC Books)
WHSmith paperback of the year: Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador) Read my review here
National Book Tokens children's book of the year: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
Audible.co.uk audiobook of the year: My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young, read by Dan Stevens (HarperAudio)
Galaxy new writer of the year: When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman (Headline Review)

The Dagger shortlists announced

This year's shortlists for the Gold Dagger, Ian Flemming's Steel Dagger and John Creasey's New Blood Dagger have been announced by The Crime Writers Association today, along with the ITV3 People's Bestseller Dagger shortlist. The nominated books in each category are:


CWA Gold Dagger shortlist:

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
Snowdrops by AD Miller
The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger shortlist:

Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson
Cold Rain by Craig Smith
The Good Son by Michael Gruber
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton

CWA John Creasey (new blood) Dagger:

Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson
Kiss Me Quick by Danny Miller
The Dead Woman of Juárez by Sam Hawken
The Dogs of Rome by Conor Fitzgerald

ITV3 People's Bestseller Dagger:


The Sixth Man by David Baldacci. Read my review here
Worth Dying For by Lee Child. Read my review here
Good As Dead by Mark Billingham
Dead Man's Grip by Peter James
Before the Poison by Peter Robinson

Booker Longlist Announced

This year's longlist for the Man Booker prize has been announced. Read the full list below:

Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape - Random House)
Sebastian Barry On Canaan's Side (Faber)
Carol Birch Jamrach's Menagerie (Canongate Books)
Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers (Granta)
Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues (Serpent's Tail - Profile)
Yvvette Edwards A Cupboard Full of Coats (Oneworld)
Alan Hollinghurst The Stranger's Child (Picador - Pan Macmillan)
Stephen Kelman Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)
Patrick McGuinness The Last Hundred Days (Seren Books)
A.D. Miller Snowdrops (Atlantic)
Alison Pick Far to Go (Headline Review)
Jane Rogers The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Sandstone Press)
D.J. Taylor Derby Day (Chatto & Windus - Random House)

For more info visit the Man Booker Prize website