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Booker's 'low-key' dozen

08.08.07 | Philip Jones

Four first-time novelists and a near-total absence of literary stars combine to make this year's Man Booker prize longlist announcement one of the most low-key in many years, notes the Guardian. Waterstone's called it a giant-felling list.

"Judges for this year's £50,000 Man Booker prize threw one of the most remarkable surprises in its 39-year history at the public and publishing industry last night. They tore up nearly all predictions and disregarded virtually all star literary novelists with new books under their belts." The news will produce as much shock among literary agents as authors - and the editors who entered them with some confidence for yesterday's long list.

The Telegraph reports that the bookies installed the British novelist Ian McEwan as 3-1 favourite to win this year’s £50,000 prize after the judges unveiled a 13-title longlist shorn of household names and packed with surprises.

The bookmakers William Hill made Nicola Barker's much admired Darkmans an early second favourite with Mohsin Hamid's post September 11 allegory of east-west relations set in New York was third.

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