Man Booker Prize short list released

NZ Herald

15 Sep, 2015 10:40 AM2 mins to read

Author Anna Smaill. Photo / Hagen Hopkins

The Man Booker Prize short list of six top novels was released tonight - but this year the prestigious award does not have a New Zealander among the top picks.

New Zealand writer Anna Smaill's debut novel The Chimes was on the Booker long list of 13 novels, but did not make the cut for the $120,000 award prize late last night.

After the release of the list, the 36-year-old Auckland-born woman tweeted: "A brilliant and formidably strong shortlist. Congrats, all! I'm so proud that The Chimes rubbed shoulders with those novels for a time."

A brilliant and formidably strong shortlist. Congrats, all! I'm so proud that The Chimes rubbed shoulders with those novels for a time.
— Anna Smaill (@AnnaESmaill) September 15, 2015

The longlist for the prize was announced on July 30.

On that evening, Smaill tweeted: "Just dropped in to check my email before bed and ... now can't see sleep in my near future.

"Thank you all for loveliness. Bloody hell."

Just dropped in to check my email before bed and ... now can't see sleep in my near future. Thank you all for loveliness.

Bloody hell.
— Anna Smaill (@AnnaESmaill) July 29, 2015

In her novel The Chimes, Smaill created a world where music replaced the written word and memories were carried as physical objects.

In 2013 New Zealander Eleanor Catton won the Booker Prize for her novel The Luminaries.

This year's winner will be announced on October 13.

Man Booker Prize shortlist:

• Anne Tyler (US) - A Spool of Blue Thread (Chatto & Windus)
• Sunjeev Sahota (UK) - The Year of the Runaways (Picador)
• Tom McCarthy (UK) - Satin Island (Jonathan Cape)
• Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria) - The Fishermen (ONE, Pushkin Press)
• Marlon James (Jamaica) - A Brief History of Seven Killings (Oneworld Publications)
• Hanya Yanagihara (US) - A Little Life (Picador)