Last week the Man Booker longlist was announced. A little surprising, right?

OK, I’m happy to admit that the main prize has a few things going for it. But I always feel that its longlist is just as notable for its omissions as the books that are chosen. This year was no exception. A few good books sometimes sneak on there – but dozens more don’t make it. And you know what? The Booker’s so-called longlist isn’t even that long. Not like the Not the Booker. As you will see below, our list really is long.



There are well over 100 books, making 2016 a record year already. So thank you to everyone who has contributed so far. And I hope you stick around as the real work begins. Because we somehow have to whittle this mighty list down to a manageable half-dozen books.

And how do we do that? We vote! If you want to take part, all you have to do is choose two books from the longlist, from two different publishers, and accompany those votes with a short review of at least one of your chosen books. It would also be very helpful if you included the word “vote”.

The review should be something over 100 words long, although as our glorious and shining Terms and Conditions state, we won’t be counting that carefully. Just make it look like you care.

It’s that simple. So let’s get voting. You’ve got just over a week. The deadline is 23.59 on 14 August 2016. The contenders are:

Megan Abbott– You Will Know Me (Picador)

Lesley Allen – The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir (Twenty7)

Deborah Andrews – Walking the Lights (Freight Books)

Louis Armand – The Combinations (Equus)

Kate Armstrong – The Storyteller (Holland House)

Jason Arnopp – The Last Days of Jack Sparks (Orbit)

Jenn Ashworth – Fell (Sceptre)

Chris Bachelder – The Throwback Special (WW Norton & Company)

Jo Baker – A Country Road, A Tree (Doubleday)

Julian Barnes – The Noise of Time (Jonathan Cape)

Shirley Barrett – Rush Oh! (Little, Brown)

Kevin Barry – Beatlebone (Doubleday)

Louise Beech – The Mountain in My Shoe (Orenda)

Claire-Louise Bennett – Pond (Fitzcarraldo)

Bill Beverly – Dodgers (No Exit Press)

Lochlan Bloom – The Wave (Dead Ink)

Lisa Blower – Sitting Ducks (Fair Acre)

Megan Bradbury – Everyone Is Watching (Picador)

Caroline Brothers – The Memory Stones (Bloomsbury)

Liam Brown – Wild Life (Legend Press)

Rowan Hisayo Buchanon – Harmless Like You (Sceptre)

Tom Bullough – Addlands (Granta)

Paul Burston – The Black Path (Accent Press Ltd)

Jackie Buxton – Glass Houses (Urbane Publications)

Louise Candlish – The Swimming Pool (Penguin)

Joanna Cannon – The Trouble With Goats and Sheep (The Borough Press)

Emma Chapman – The Last Photograph (Picador)

Anna Chilvers – Tainted Love (Bluemoose)

Dan Clements – What Will Remain (Silvertail)

Clár Ni Chonghaile – Fractured (Legend Press)

Chris Cleave – Everyone Brave Is Forgiven (Sceptre)

Emma Cline – The Girls (Chatto & Windus)

Paul MM Cooper – River of Ink (Bloomsbury)

Mark Connors – Stickleback (Armley Press)

Isabel Costello – Paris Mon Amour (Canelo)

Jack Cox – Dodge Rose (Dalkey Archive Press)

Justin Cronin – The City of Mirrors (Orion)

Rachel Cusk – Transit (Jonathan Cape)

Shelley Day – The Confession of Stella Moon (Contraband)

Don DeLillo – Zero K (Picador)

Ruth Dugdall – Nowhere Girl (Legend Press)

Sophie Duffy – Bright Stars (Legend Press)

Ken Edwards – Country Life (Unthank Books)

Jo Ely – Stone Seeds (Urbane Publications)

Guillermo Erades – Back to Moscow (Scribner UK)

Pamela Erens – Eleven Hours (Atlantic Books)

Lyn G Farrell – The Wacky Man (Legend Press)

Julia Forster – What a Way to Go (Atlantic Books)

Harry Gallon – The Shapes Of Dogs’ Eyes (Dead Ink)

Ruth Gilligan – Nine Folds Make A Paper Swan (Atlantic Books)

Jules Grant – We Go Around in the Night and Are Consumed By Fire (Myriad)

Guinevere Glasfurd – The Words in My Hand (Two Roads)

Garth Greenwell – What Belongs to You (Farrar, Straus and Giraux)

David John Griffin – Infinite Rooms (Urbane Publications)

Michael Grothaus – Epiphany Jones (Orenda Books)

Lee Harrison – The Bastard Wonderland (Wrecking Ball Press)

Adam Haslett – Imagine Me Gone (Little Brown and Company)

Noah Hawley – Before the Fall (Hodder & Stoughton)

Matt Hill – Graft (Angry Robot)

Catherine Hokin – Blood and Roses (Yolk Publishing)

Anna Hope – The Ballroom (Doubleday)

Michael Hughes – The Countenance Divine (John Murray)

Dave Hutchinson – Europe at Midnight (Solaris)

Amanda Jennings – In Her Wake (Orenda Books)

Elnathan John – Born on a Tuesday (Cassava Republic)

Anjali Joseph – The Living (Fourth Estate)

Avril Joy – Sometimes a River Song (Linen Press)

Mireille Juchau – The World Without Us (Bloomsbury)

James Kelman – Dirt Road (Canongate)

Claire King – Everything Love Is (Bloomsbury)

Hannah Kohler – The Outside Lands (Picador)

John Lake – Amy and the Fox (Armley Press)

Jem Lester – Shtum (Orion)

Ashley Lister – Raven and Skull (Caffeine Nights Publishing)

Carol Lovekin – Ghostbird (Honno Welsh Women’s Press)

PK Lynch – Armadillos (Legend Press)

Martin MacInnes – Infinite Ground (Atlantic Books)

Kevin MacNeil – The Brilliant and Forever (Polygon)

Seraphina Madsen – Dodge and Burn (Dodo Ink)

Brooke Maganti – The Turning Tide (W&N)

Ayisha Malik – Sophia Khan is Not Obliged (Twenty7)

Michael J Malone – Bad Samaritan (Contraband)

Iain Maloney – The Waves Burn Bright (Freight Books)

Sarah Ladipo Manyika – Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun (Cassava Republic Press)

Alex Marwood – The Darkest Secret (Sphere)

Colum McCann – Thirteen Ways of Looking (Bloomsbury)

Tiffany McDaniel – The Summer That Melted Everything (Scribe)

Ian McGuire – The North Water (Scribner UK)

Elizabeth McKenzie – The Portable Veblen (Penguin Press)

Wyl Menmuir – The Many (Salt)

Sarah Meyrick – Knowing Anna (SPCK Publishing)

Dan Micklethwaite – The Less Than Perfect Legend of Donna Creosote (Bluemoose)

China Miéville – This Census Taker (Del Rey Books)

Kei Miller – Augustown (W&N)

Alan Moore – Jerusalem (Liveright and Knockabout)

Alison Moore – Death and the Seaside (Salt)

Claire Morrall – When the Floods Came (Sceptre)

Yelena Moskovich – The Natashas (Serpent’s Tail)

Sarah Moss – The Tidal Zone (Granta Books)

Sylvain Neuvel – Sleeping Giants (Del Rey Books)

Carl Neville – Resolution Way (Repeater Books)

Suzy Norman – Duff (Patrician Press)

Claire North – The Sudden Appearance of Hope (Orbit)

Barney Norris – Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain (Doubleday)

Edna O’Brien – The Little Red Chairs (Faber & Faber)

Paraic O’Donnell – The Maker of Swans (W&N)

Maggie O’Farrell – This Must Be the Place (Tinder Press)

Harry Parker – Anatomy of a Soldier (Faber & Faber)

Sarah Perry – The Essex Serpent (Serpent’s Tail)

Cherry Potts – The Dowry Blade (Arachne Press)

Laura Powell – The Unforgotten (Freight Books)

Christopher Priest – The Gradual (Gollancz)

Lucy Ribchester – The Amber Shadows (Simon & Schuster UK)

Mary-Jane Riley – After She Fell (Killer Reads)

Adam Roberts – The Thing Itself (Gollancz)

Lou Rowan – A Mystery’s No Problem (Equus)

Amanda Saint – As If I Were a River (Urbane Publications)

James Sallis – Willnot (No Exit Press)

David Savill – They Are Trying to Break Your Heart (Bloomsbury)

Anakana Schofield – Martin John (And Other Stories)

Helen Sedgwick – The Comet Seekers (Harvill Secker)

Lionel Shriver – The Mandibles (The Borough Press)

Karin Slaughter – The Kept Woman (Century)

Ethyl Smith – Changed Times (ThunderPoint Publishing)

Francis Spufford – Golden Hill (Faber & Faber)

Sarayu Srivatsa – If You Look For Me I Am Not Here (Bluemoose)

Elizabeth Strout – My Name Is Lucy Barton (Viking)

Emma Claire Sweeney – Owl Song at Dawn (Legend Press)

M Suddain – Hunters and Collectors (Jonathan Cape)

Graham Swift – Mothering Sunday (Scribner UK)

David Szalay – All That Man Is (Jonathan Cape)

Jonathan Taylor – Melissa (Salt Publishing)

William Thacker – Lingua Franca (Legend Press)

Yusuf Toropov – Jihadi: A Love Story (Orenda Books)

Anna Vaught – Killing Hapless Alley (Patrician Press)

Dan Vyleta – Smoke (W&N)

Natasha Walter – A Quiet Life (The Borough Press)

Simon Wan – Love and a Dozen Roast Potatoes (Urbane Publications)

Eleanor Wasserberg – Foxlowe (Harper Collins)

Jemma Wayne – Chains of Sand (Legend Press)

Aliya Whitely – The Arrival of the Missives (Unsung Stories)

Chis Whitaker – Tall Oaks (Twenty7)

Hugo Wilcken – The Reflection (Melville House UK)

Matt Wilven – The Blackbird Singularity (Legend Press)

Charlotte Wood – The Natural Way of Things (Allen & Unwin)

James Yorkston – Three Craws (Freight Books)

I’ll be back here on 15 August to post the results – and no doubt feeling slightly frazzled from all the counting. Let’s go!