A list of novels likely to be eligible for the 2017 Man Booker Prize.
Please do not add a book unless you are fairly sure it will be eligible according to the official rules. (See: http://www.themanbookerprize.com/ente...) This means any novel originally written in English regardless of the nationality of their author, with a print edition scheduled for publication in the UK between 1st October 2016 and 30th September 2017. Self-published novels are not eligible.
Man Booker Prize Eligible Books by Year
2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010
Please do not add a book unless you are fairly sure it will be eligible according to the official rules. (See: http://www.themanbookerprize.com/ente...) This means any novel originally written in English regardless of the nationality of their author, with a print edition scheduled for publication in the UK between 1st October 2016 and 30th September 2017. Self-published novels are not eligible.
Man Booker Prize Eligible Books by Year
2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010
178 books ·
240 voters ·
list created October 25th, 2016
by Phillip Edwards (votes) .
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BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...)
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Nov 15, 2016 08:19PM
I always wonder how it is possible to put a book that hasn't even been published yet on a list like this one.... I mean, shouldn't one at least have read the book to decide whether or not it is Booker Prize eligible...?
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But there would be no list if we had to wait to read them!I take eligible to mean that the book and author meet the criteria to be entered for the prize, nothing more. I think it is most useful as a list of good new literary fiction.
It's possible that the odd stinker could creep in, but then absolute stinkers sometimes do get automatically entered for the prize because the author has previously won or been shortlisted (let's not name names!)
Phillip wrote: "I take eligible to mean that the book and author meet the criteria to be entered for the prize, nothing more. ..."I get that. But who's to know the contents of a book before it gets actually published.... (and it's not even sure a book will actually be published to be 'eligible' for the 2017 Booker). Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light is on this list. It has been before, but so far no book, just a rumour she is writing it. I'd love to read it once it is published, don't get me wrong, but how a yet unpublished book can be on this list is beyond me. To me 'eligible' definitely means something else. And why would there be no list if we had to wait to read them? Plenty of books have already been published since the 2016 Booker, and several will before the longlist of the 2017 Booker, not even to mention the actual awarding of the 2017 Booker.
Phillip wrote: "But if I didn't add books I hadn't read (yet) then I couldn't have started the list..."Why not? Unless it means you've read none of the books you've added? Which, in my opinion at least, is not right for this particular list (given the title of this list), because how can you think a title Booker eligible if you haven't read it...? By the way, I don't need to tell you that on the whole one can only own/borrow/read published books, yet you've voted for The Mirror and the Light...
This was meant to be a list of possible contenders for the prize. It also has been a useful list of forthcoming literary fiction. Perhaps I have made the mistake of using the wrong word. Perhaps I do not know my own language well enough.
The OED definition of the word eligible is: "satisfying the appropriate conditions". I don't know which of the conditions for ENTRY to the prize you think require the book to have been read? I thought that the literary merit of the books was for the judges to decide not me.
OK, I will remove my votes from all the books I haven't read, and never add anything I haven't.
@PhillipAccording to the COD, the definition of 'eligible' is 'fit or entitled to be chosen' and Webster describes it as 'qualified to be chosen'. But let's leave it at this, shall we, because we are not going to see eye to eye on this one...
Well said Booklovinglady! I understand and appreciate how and why Philip gets the ball rolling, but I do not understand all the other people who vote for books that they have never read. I only vote for a book once I have started reading it.
"This was meant to be a list of possible contenders for the prize. It also has been a useful list of forthcoming literary fiction"This is exactly what I want the list to be and what the previous lists have been. Please don't change it. I agree completely that it is the judges job to decide the literary merit of the books. The rest of us can look at the entire list of possible candidates and see if we can guess which books have enough literary merit to be chosen - or just use the list as a way of discovering new books to read.
I second Ann Helen. These lists are only useful if there is an attempt to anticipate the literary fiction released during the Man Booker eligible period which may be good contenders for the prize. They help (me) find books and authors to read before the longlist announcement. The way goodreads lists work requires someone (thanks to Phillip in this case) to vote for the books so they appear. This is the way these lists have functioned for seven years. Others are free to make their own lists that function another way.
A book is eligible for the Booker if it is published by a UK publisher between October 1st and September 30th of that year. Period. Reading the book makes no difference as to whether it's eligible or not. If it was published in the UK during that time frame, it's eligible.
These lists are a very useful institution of several years' standing on GR, for people who want to read likely contenders in advance of the longlist announcement, and for those interested in browsing new UK literary fiction all on one page . People who have followed the prize tend to know a Booker type book when they see it, and there are publishers with literary fiction lists whose books do belong on here.Very sorry to see that busybody users made Phillip feel the need to remove his votes - which do fit the criteria of eligibility for the GR list - and I hope that will not happen again. There is no site rule which says that a user must have read a book in order to vote for it. (Some list owners may ask for that - but Phillip is the list owner here, and has been curating these lists for several years, and they are useful to others.)
I am going to go through some catalogues soon to find books eligible for the upcoming International Prize, and if I see likely English-language prize contenders will be adding them regardless of the fact that I have not read them and may not wish to, in order to help create a resource for other site users.
I think the idea that we only formulate lists such as these based on what we've read is, above all else, deeply humbug. These lists are a bit of fun, and considering what's about to happen in two days I say we go in for as much fun as possible. Please keep going Phillip...Booklovinglady - I love that you lovebooks but I'm sad that you don't lovefun. Who knows if the Mantel will be out in 2017? It's fun to speculate it might, and because of that I'm glad it's on there. If you REALLY WERE a booklovinglady these lists would surely put a smile on your face...
As Antonomasia points out, this is a very useful list of 'likely contenders' for 'those interested in browsing new UK literary fiction all on one page' and makes no claim to anything else.
@Phillip: hope you don't mind - I've now restored to the list the rest of the titles that you've tagged/shelved as 'booker possibles'.
A couple for next yearTom Barbash, The Dakota Winters
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dakota-Winte...
Barney Norris, Turning for Home
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Turning-Home...
Removed for being outside the time window specified:#19 Mischling
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
#31 The Veins of the Ocean
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
I also want to question the inclusion of The Mirror and the Light. It doesn't have an anticipated pub date, and has been in the works since 2013. Although there are--strangely--36 ratings listed on Goodreads, it cannot be ordered on Amazon, and Net Galley has no DRC. Is this book actually projected to come out within the window in question? Has anyone even seen it? My gracious, I nearly have a case of the vapors, I am so worked up about this potential fraud. Someone quick, bring my smelling salts...
Donna wrote: "Arpit wrote: "I think The Ministry of Utmost Happiness would win!"
If you want it on the list, you are going to have to add it yourself."
It is on the list, sitting prettily on #19 position ;)
If you want it on the list, you are going to have to add it yourself."
It is on the list, sitting prettily on #19 position ;)
Donna wrote: "Removed for being outside the time window specified:#19 Mischling
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
#31 The Veins of the Ocean
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...-..."
Hi Donna...forgive me but I don't know how to remove books, but I believe The Scandal by Fredrik Backman is ineligible as it is not originally written in English - it's a Swedish translation. I recommend it though!
David wrote: "Donna wrote: "Removed for being outside the time window specified:#19 Mischling
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
#31 The Veins of the Ocean
https://www.goodreads.com/book/..."
David wrote: "Donna wrote: "Removed for being outside the time window specified:
#19 Mischling
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
#31 The Veins of the Ocean
https://www.goodreads.com/book/..."
And also: The Scandal from #91 for being published in another language initially and at the request of the listmaker.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
In order to remove books, one needs to become a Goodreads librarian (volunteer work, unpaid). When I signed on a few years ago--mostly in order to be able to clean up lists--it was not difficult. I am a retired teacher, but I think a BA would have been enough to get me in. However, since the Amazon buyout, I don't know whether it's easier, harder, or the same.
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