The Orange Prize 2010

The longlist for the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction was just announced:

Rosie Alison: The Very Thought of You (Britain)
Eleanor Catton: The Rehearsal (New Zealand)
Clare Clark: Savage Lands (Britain)
Amanda Craig: Hearts and Minds (Britain)
Roopa Farooki: The Way Things Look to Me (Britain)
Rebecca Gowers: The Twisted Heart (Britain)
M.J. Hyland: This Is How (Britain)
Sadie Jones: Small Wars (Britain)
Barbara Kingsolver: The Lacuna (United States)
Laila Lalami: Secret Son (Morocco)
Andrea Levy: The Long Song (Britain)
Attica Locke: Black Water Rising (United States)
Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall (Britain)
Maria McCann: The Wilding (Britain)
Nadifa Mohamed: Black Mamba Boy (Britain)
Lorrie Moore: A Gate at the Stairs (United States)
Monique Roffey: The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (Spain-Britain)
Amy Sackville: The Still Point (Britain)
Kathryn Stockett: The Help (United States)
Sarah Waters: The Little Stranger (Britain)

Oh, you beat me to it! :)

The Guardian has a gallery of the 20 longlisted books here:

Orange prize for fiction 2010: the longlist

The Orange Prize's web site also has more information about these books:

Orange Prize for Fiction 2010 longlist

I've read Wolf Hall and The Long Song, and I own but haven't read Hearts and Minds, A Gate at the Stairs, and The Little Stranger.

Christi, I signed up for Google e-mail Alerts for "orange prize", and found out about the announcement from an e-mail I received on my BlackBerry just before I left work. I knew that the longlist would be announced on March 17th, but I thought the announcement wouldn't come until late afternoon or early evening in the UK.

Black Mamba Boy sounds especially interesting, as do The Rehearsal, Black Water Rising, The Way Things Look to Me, This Is How, Small Wars, Secret Son, and The White Woman on the Green Bicycle, after reading the summaries on the Orange Prize web site. I'm very interested to know if anyone has read these books, and what they think of them.

BTW, our own Rachael (FlossieT) interviewed Eleanor Catton for the first issue of Belletrista, which includes a discussion of The Rehearsal:

An Interview with New Zealand author Eleanor Catton

I love Brit Lit, but that's sure one British-heavy list!

Sob. They didn't include The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels. I've just finished reading it and while it's possibly not up to the standard of Fugitive Pieces which won the Orange Prize, it's still hauntingly good.

>5 Nickelini: agreed. I love the OP but it is still a British prize with British judges, a British sponsor and the book has to have been published in the UK.

>6 bookmark123: that's a major oversight, imo! The Winter Vault was definitely among my top books for 2009.

I'm reading The Wilding now. I picked it up while cleaning yesterday and never put it down. I loved her debut novel As Meat Loves Salt and this second one has been a long time coming. It's wonderfully enjoyable but doesn't equal, say, The Winter Vault or Oates' Little Bird of Heaven, another book not on the list. However, the Guardian article called "Spare Us Your Misery" linked above is very telling (and I find a bit disconcerting).

>4 kidzdoc: Don't forget Belinda Otas's article and interview with Nadifa Mohammed (and Maaza Mengiste) in the most recent Belletrista issue.

#6, 7 - Agreed. I'm surprised at the total lack of Canadians. Given the number of women who were longlisted for the Giller Prize, you would think at least one or two would make it to the OP.

I've only read The Little Stranger, but I own Wolf Hall and Small Wars as well. With all the Brits on the list, I'm shocked that A. S. Byatt wasn't longlisted. The Children's Book was outstanding, IMO.

I was thinking that they also didn't include either of the books by women which made the US's National Book Award shortlist. Those being American Salvage and Lark and Termite (the former probably being too American and too much misery for this year's judges).

Did I say I wasn't impressed with the interview of the judge who was a TV producer? I wasn't. I worry they are trending "Bright-sided" (phrase comes from the title of Barbara Ehrenreich's book by the same name). According to that article, this year's judges wouldn't have let Sadie Jones's Outcast or Valerie Martin's Property make their lists...

Ah well, this is why I try not to let awards guide my reading.

I'm in London and while I don't think books have been excluded for being American, too much misery may have been a factor - I believe the chair of judges, Daisy Goodwin (who has a history of controversial pronoucements on various things) made some comment disparaging misery in entries.

I've read The Little Stranger and have several out of the library and own a few. I've just started Roopa Farooki's The Way Things Look to Me because it also fulfils another aim for the next few weeks - read some of the huge number of library books I've had out for too long, starting with the earliest borrowed. It's interesting so far.

The shortlist for the 2010 Orange Award for New Writers has just been announced:

The Book of Fires by Jane Borodale
The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini
After The Fire, A Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld

2010 Award for New Writers shortlist

I reviewed The Boy Next Door in Issue #2 of Belletrista - it was a fabulous book, definitely 5 stars!

>11 kidzdoc:, 12 And FlossieT reviewed the Evie Wyld in a previous issue also. 2 for 3!

The Orange Prize shortlist was announced earlier today:

Rosie Alison - The Very Thought of You
Barbara Kingsolver - The Lacuna
Attica Locke - Black Water Rising
Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall
Lorrie Moore - A Gate at the Stairs
Monique Roffey - The White Woman on the Green Bicycle

The winner will be announced on June 9.

Thanks kidzdoc. You are fab!!

And the Orange Prize Winner for 2010 is Barbara Kingsolver for The Lacuna!

From the Guardian today, Orange drops the New Writers Award

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/14/orange-ditches-award-for-new-writers...

#18, Well, I hope their "bigger plans" make up for dropping the prize.

Hmmmm.....

Check out my update about Orange January 2011!

(Pardon the repost!)

I'll be reading the Blind Assassin, starting January 1st!