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Indies shine on Booker's dozen

The 13-strong longlist for the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction was unveiled late this afternoon, and features four first time novelists as well as titles from independent publishers Myrmidon and Tindal Street.

The "Man Booker Dozen", revealed in full below, was chosen from 110 entries; 92 were submitted for the prize and 18 were called in by the judges. The judging panel is Howard Davies, director of the London School of Economics and Political Science; Wendy Cope, poet; Giles Foden, journalist and author; Ruth Scurr, biographer and critic and Imogen Stubbs, actor and writer.

Davies said: "This year’s longlist is very diverse, with four first time novelists as well as some more familiar names. All the books chosen are well-crafted and will appeal to a wide readership."

The 2007 shortlist will be announced on Thursday 6th September, and the winner will be announced on 16th October at an awards ceremony.

The longlist includes:

Darkmans by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate)
Self Help by Edward Docx (Picador)
The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng (Myrmidon)
The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (Sceptre)
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
Gifted by Nikita Lalwani (Viking)
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn (Tindal Street)
Consolation by Michael Redhill (William Heinemann)
Animal's People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster)
Winnie & Wolf by A N Wilson (Hutchinson)