Ed O'Loughlin joins Irish Booker regulars William Trevor and Colm Tóibín on the longlist for the Man Booker Prize writes EILEEN BATTERSBY,Literary Correspondent
THE PRESENCE of two of the world’s finest living writers, William Trevor and 2003 Nobel Literature Laureate South African J M Coetzee, on this year’s Man Booker longlist will ensure that this selection will be taken very seriously indeed.
Among the other 11 mainly British contenders for next month's shortlist and ultimately, the prize itself, are Trevor's countrymen, twice-Booker shortlisted Colm Tóibín and former Irish Timesjournalist Ed O'Loughlin, who is nominated for his first novel, Not Untrue Not Unkind– one of three debut novels included.
Trevor (81) must have a very real chance of taking this prize with Love and Summer, a beautiful, evocative book which will be published at the end of next month. In it, a doomed love affair between two lonely people looking for very different things, takes place in an Irish village well stocked with an interesting cross section of victims and dreamers caught up in a web of memories.
Tóibín's Brooklyn, the Trevor- like story of a Wexford woman, Eilis Lacey, who leaves 1950s Enniscorthy to seek work in the US where she finds happiness only to lose it on being summoned back to Ireland, has already impressed reviewers and was BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime.
Trevor is regarded as a modern master and an obvious contender for the Nobel Prize; he could well win the Booker with this novel, which is worthy to stand among his best work.
Tóibín’s inclusion was widely predicted as he now a shortlist regular and a former International Impac Dublin Literary Award winner.
More of a surprise is Ed O’Loughlin’s exciting narrative about an Irish journalist who has witnessed and reported on the genocide in Rwanda. O’Loughlin sent his 100,000-word manuscript to Penguin Ireland and the rest is already history – this is an exceptional achievement.
It almost compensates for the disappointing omission of Indian writer Amit Chaudhuri's The Immortals,a calm, elegantly observed study of relationships in the world of music.
Equally odd is the shock bypassing of Malaysian-born Tash Aw for his brilliant quest narrative, Map of the Invisible World.
No one overlooked Hilary Mantel. The English writer possessed of rare imagination and a singular grasp of history will be the one to beat. Her mighty novel Wolf Hall brings to life Thomas Cromwell, one-time adviser to Henry VIII, against the background of an epic period of English history. Mantel, whose novels include A Greater Place of Safety and Beyond Black, is original and daring and Wolf Hall is monumental and even slightly terrifying, a bit like the engaging Mantel herself.
Another established English woman on the list is former Booker Prize winner and establishment figure A.S. Byatt, whose Possession surprisingly outgunned John McGahern’s Amongst Women for the 1990 Booker. Byatt is a formidable intellect and critic with more cerebral energy at her personal disposal than most university English departments could collectively muster.
The Children's Book, spanning the Victorian and Edwardian periods, is erudite and engrossing and as often with Byatt, her use of source material is so fascinating it almost overshadows the story.
English writer Sarah Hall (35), who was shortlisted in 2004 for her exuberant second novel, The Electric Michelangelo, now sees her fourth novel, How to Paint a Dead Manon the longlist. A study of the artistic consciousness (which will be reviewed on Saturday in The Irish TimesWeekend Review supplement), it will face a strong shortlist challenge from fellow English writer and contemporary Adam Foulds, also 35.
Tipped as a possible shortlist contender on publication last spring, Foulds impressed and intrigued with The Quickening Maze, a layered narrative based on the difficult life of tormented poet John Clare. Set largely in High Beach Private Asylum, a reformist institution run by Dr Matthew Allen, the daringly imagined story also features the young Alfred Tennyson.
Previously shortlisted Welsh writer Sarah Waters makes this longlist with The Little Stranger.
Also longlisted are Simon Mawer for The Glass Room, James Scudamore for Heliopolis,Samantha Harvey for The Wildernessand James Lever's spoof autobiography of Tarzan's sidekick, Me, Cheeta.
Still, questions will be asked: how could any panel overlook both Amit Chaudhuri and Tash Aw?
While South African-born, Australian-based Gill Schierhout's debut, The Shape of Him, failed to convince the judges, the inclusion of Nobel laureate J M Coetzee, the first writer to win the Booker Prize twice, in 1983 with Life Times of MichaelK and again in 1999 with Disgrace, opens up the race.
Coetzee is always a contender. An artist who late in his career left South Africa and settled in Australia proved with Slow Manhe was not afraid of looking beyond the world he has known. Summertime will be published in September.
Trevor too has powerful claims. Love and Summercould win any prize; obvious obstacles will be Coetzee and, of course, Mantel and Byatt. Booker panels have always favoured big, highly readable historical novels. The gods will be on Trevor's side, but will the judges agree?
The shortlist will be announced on September 8th; the destiny of the £50,000 prize will be known on October 6th.
A S Byatt
The Children's Book(Random House - Chatto and Windus)
J M Coetzee
Summertime(Random House - Harvill Secker)
Adam Foulds
The Quickening Maze(Random House - Jonathan Cape)
Sarah Hall
How to Paint a Dead Man(Faber and Faber)
Samantha Harvey
The Wilderness(Random House - Jonathan Cape)
James Lever
Me Cheeta(HarperCollins - Fourth Estate)
Hilary Mantel
Wolf Hall(HarperCollins - Fourth Estate)
Simon Mawer
The Glass Room(Little, Brown)
Ed O'Loughlin
Not Untrue Not Unkind(Penguin Ireland)
James Scudamore
Heliopolis(Random House - Harvill Secker)
Colm Tóibín
Brooklyn(Penguin - Viking)
William Trevor
Love and Summer(Penguin - Viking)
Sarah Waters
The Little Stranger(Little, Brown - Virago)