Our initial poll has put more than 140 novels in contention. We need your learned opinions to winnow this down to a shortlist next week

It’s time for the Not The Booker longlist. Just like every year, it feels like we need it. As you might have seen, the actual Man Booker longlist was released last week and, well … Let’s try not to be rude. At least there are some admirably unusual choices on there. It’s also inevitable that the judges of that prize are going to miss off some beauties, because they only get to choose 12 books. And that’s where we come in. Our longlist is actually genuinely long. Thanks to all the nominations we’ve received, we’ve got a giant roster of more than 140 novels – and plenty of them are superb.

It’s very pleasing to see so many books get some time in the sun, but this list is also rather unwieldy and needs pruning into shape. We need you to vote to decide on the five books that will go on our shortlist – before our judges’ panel gets involved and add its wildcard entry to bring the total up to six.

To do that trimming, all you have to do is to cast your vote in the comments below. Voting is easy – ifyou read the following instructions carefully. So:

In order for your vote to be counted and comply with our fair and valiant rules, you need to choose two books from the longlist, from two different publishers, and accompany those choices with a short review of at least one of your chosen books. It would also be very helpful if you could include the word “vote”.



We’re hoping for a minimum of 100 words in the review. We won’t be counting all that carefully, as there are only so many hours in the day – but at the very least make it look like you care.

That’s it. You’ve got just over one week. The next deadline is 23:59 BST on Monday 6 August 2018. So make sure you nominate your favourite books before then - and tell all your friends to take part too. I’ll be back here on 7 August to post the results.

As is traditional, before we get to the list, I have to thank Tips, Links and Suggestions stalwart and all-round good egg Lisa Jones for her help in checking eligibility and titles. And as is usual, when you see the size of the list, you’ll understand why I’m so grateful. Here it is:

Prayaag Akbar – Leila (Faber)

Kerry Andrew – Swansong (Jonathan Cape)

Katherine Arden – The Girl in the Tower (Del Rey Press)

AM Bakalar – Children of Our Age (Jantar Publishing)

RJ Barker – Blood of Assassins (Orbit)

Julian Barnes – The Only Story (Jonathan Cape)

Amy Bloom – White Houses (Granta)

Naomi Booth – Sealed (Dead Ink Books)

Anissa M Bouziane – Dune Song (Sandstone Press)

Mary Lynn Bracht – White Chrysanthemum (Chatto and Windus)

Glen James Brown - Ironopolis (Parthian)

Anna Burns – Milkman (Faber)

Claire Patel Campbell – Abernathy (Stairwell Books)

Neil Campbell – Zero Hours (Salt)

Daniela Cascella – Singed (Equus Press)

Joseph Cassara – The House of Impossible Beauties (Oneworld Publications)

Elaine Castillo – America Is Not the Heart (Atlantic)

Brian Catling – The Cloven (Coronet Books)

Steve Cavanagh – Thirteen (Orion)

David Chariandy – Brother (Bloomsbury)

Jennifer Clement – Gun Love (Hogarth Press)

Katherine Clements – The Coffin Path (Headline Review)

Anne Coates - Songs of Innocence (Urbane Publications)

Stevyn Colgan – A Murder to Die For (Unbound)

Nigel Jay Cooper – The Pursuit of Ordinary (Roundfire Books)

Mason Cross – Presumed Dead (Orion)

Helen Cullen – The Lost Letters of William Woolf (Michael Joseph)

Abi Curtis – Water and Glass (Cloud Lodge Books)

Rachel Cusk – Kudos (Faber)

Christina Dalcher – Vox (HQ)

Carys Davies – West (Granta)

Will Dean – Dark Pines (Oneworld Publications)

Danny Denton – The Earlie King & the Kid in Yellow (Granta)

Nick Drnaso – Sabrina (Granta)

Ever Dundas – Goblin (Saraband)

Will Eaves – Murmur (CB Editions)

Alys Einion – Ash (Honno Press)

Lissa Evans – Old Baggage (Doubleday)

Fatima Farheen – A Place For Us (Hogarth Press)

Aminatta Forna – Happiness (Bloomsbury)

Claire Fuller – Bitter Orange (Fig Tree/Penguin)

Elisabeth Gifford – The Good Doctor of Warsaw (Atlantic Books)

Daniel Godfrey – The Synapse Sequence (Titan)

Kat Gordon – The Hunters (The Borough Press)

Julian Gough – Connect (Picador)

Imogen Hermes Gowar – The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock (Harvill Secker)

Jessie Greengrass – Sight (John Murray)

Tamsin Grey – She’s Not There (The Borough Press)

Guy Gunaratne – In Our Mad and Furious City (Tinder)

Fiona Hammond – Flake (Austin Macauley)

Nick Harkaway – Gnomon (William Heinemann)

Samantha Harvey – The Western Wind (Jonathan Cape)

Mick Herron – London Rules (John Murray)

Ian Holding – What Happened to Us (Little Island)

Alan Hollinghurst – The Sparsholt Affair (Picador)

Alex Hourston – Love After Love (Faber)

Caoilinn Hughes – Orchid and the Wasp (Oneworld Publications)

Uzodinma Iweala – Speak No Evil (John Murray)

Louise Jensen – The Date (Little, Brown)

Jill Johnson – The Time Before the Time to Come (Own it!)

Ariel Kahn – Raising Sparks (Bluemoose)

Fay Keenan – Springtime at the Cider Kitchen (Aria)

Tyler Keevil – No Good Brother (The Borough Press)

Jess Kidd – The Hoarder (Canongate)

Patrick Kincaid - The Continuity Girl (Unbound)

Julia Kite – The Hope and Anchor (Unbound)

Mick Kitson – Sal (Canongate)

Michelle de Kretser – The Life to Come (Allen & Unwin)

Naomi Kruger - May (Seren Books)

Rachel Kushner – The Mars Room (Jonathan Cape)

Olivia Laing – Crudo (Picador)

Victor Lavalle – The Changeling (Canongate)

Rhiannon Lewis – My Beautiful Imperial (Victorina Press)

Rebecca Ley – Sweet Fruit, Sour Land (Sandstone Press)

Sophie van Llewyn – Bottled Goods (Fairlight Books)

Sheila Llewellyn – Walking Wounded (Sceptre)

Kirsty Logan – The Gloaming (Harvill Secker)

Hugh Lupton – The Assembly of the Severed Head (Propolis Books)

Seth Lynch – A Dead American in Paris (Fahrenheit)

William Macbeth – The Warehouse Industry (Thistle Publishing)

Sophie Mackintosh – The Water Cure (Hamish Hamilton)

Sally Magnusson – The Sealwoman’s Gift (Two Roads)

Katy Mahood – Entanglement (The Borough Press)

Kate Mascarenhas – The Psychology of Time Travel (Head Of Zeus)

Zachary Mason – Metamorphica (Jonathan Cape)

Alison May – All That Was Lost (Legend Press)

Kate Mayfield – The Parentations (Oneworld Publications)

Gillian McAllister – Anything You Do Say (Penguin)

Tom McCulloch – The Accidental Recluse (Sandstone)

Joy McCullough – Blood Water Paint (Dutton)

Jackie McLean – Shadows (ThunderPoint Publishing)

Dervla McTiernan – The Ruin (Sphere Publishing)

James Miller – UnAmerican Activities (Dodo Ink)

Madeline Miller – Circe (Bloomsbury)

Fiona Mitchell – The Maid’s Room (Hodder & Stoughton)

Fatima Farheen Mirza – A Place for Us (Penguin)

Liz Mistry – Uncommon Cruelty (Bloodhound Books)

Virginia Moffatt – Echo Hall (Unbound)

Dan Mooney – The Great Unexpected (Legend Press)

Alison Moore – Missing (Salt)

Heather Morris – The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Zaffre Publishing)

Joanna Nadin – The Queen of Bloody Everything (Pan Macmillan)

SJ Naudé – The Third Reel (Salt)

Celeste Ng – Little Fires Everywhere (Little, Brown)

Jeannette Ng – Under the Pendulum Sun (Angry Robot)

Gregory Norminton – The Devil’s Highway (4th Estate)

David Olner – The Baggage Carousel (Obliterati Press)

Michael Ondaatje – Warlight (Jonathan Cape)

Rob Palk – Animal Lovers (Sandstone Press)

Jamie Paradise – Night Time Cool (Unbound)

David Park – Travelling in a Strange Land (Bloomsbury Books)

Richard Powers – The Overstory (William Heinemann)

Christopher Priest – An American Story (Gollancz)

Zelda Rhiando – Fukushima Dreams (Unbound)

Rachel Rhys – Fatal Inheritance (Doubleday)

Richard Rippon – The Lord of the Dead (Obliterati Press)

Donal Ryan - From a Low and Quiet Sea (Doubleday)

Manda Scott – A Treachery of Spies (Bantam Press)

Holly Seddon – Love Will Tear Us Apart (Atlantic Books)

Jade Sharma – Problems (Tramp Press)

Hilary Shepherd – Albi (Honno Press)

Nikesh Shukla – The One Who Wrote Destiny (Atlantic Books)

Ali Smith – Winter (Hamish Hamilton)

James Smythe – I Still Dream (The Borough Press)

Anna Stephens – Darksoul (HarperCollins)

Malachy Tallack – The Valley at the Centre of Our World (Canongate)

Sharlene Teo – Ponti (Picador)

Jeet Thayil – The Book of Chocolate Saints (Faber)

Rupert Thomson – Never Anyone But You (Corsair)

Emma Timpany – Travelling in the Dark (Fairlight Moderns)

Novuyo Rosa Tshuma – House of Stone (Atlantic Books)

Stuart Turton – The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Bloomsbury)

Dan Tyte – The Offline Project (Graffeg)

Anna Vaught – The Life of Almost (Patrician Press)

Jo Verity – A Different River (Honno Press)

Willy Vlautin – Don’t Skip Out on Me (Faber)

Kit de Waal – The Trick to Time (Penguin)

William Wall – Grace’s Day (Head of Zeus)

Joanna Walsh – Break.Up (Serpent’s Tail)

Jacqueline Ward – Perfect Ten (Atlantic Books)

Robert Welbourn – Ideal Angels (Unbound)

Irvine Welsh – Dead Men’s Trousers (Jonathan Cape)

Curtis White – Lacking Character (Melville House)

Tony White – The Fountain In The Forest (Faber)

Ellen Wiles – The Invisible Crowd (HQ)

Tim Winton – The Shepherd’s Hut (Picador)

Benjamin Wood – A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better (Simon & Schuster)

Sofka Zinovieff – Putney (Bloomsbury)