orange prize long list announced

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Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 Long List:

  • Debra Adelaide The Household Guide to Dying

  • Gaynor Arnold Girl in a Blue Dress

  • Lissa Evans Their Finest Hour and a Half

  • Bernardine Evaristo Blonde Roots

  • Ellen Feldman Scottsboro

  • Laura Fish Strange Music

  • V.V. Ganeshananthan Love Marriage

  • Allegra Goodman Intuition

  • Samantha Harvey The Wilderness

  • Samantha Hunt The Invention of Everything Else

  • Michelle de Kretser The Lost Dog

  • Deirdre Madden Molly Fox’s Birthday

  • Toni Morrison A Mercy

  • Gina Ochsner The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight

  • Marilynne Robinson Home

  • Preeta Samarasan Evening is the Whole Day

  • Kamila Shamsie Burnt Shadows

  • Curtis Sittenfeld American Wife

  • Miriam Toews The Flying Troutmans

  • Ann Weisgarber The Personal History of Rachel DuPree

Although I've only read one of the long list books this year, Curtis Sittenfeld's brilliant American Wife (my review is here), I love this list. For those unfamiliar with the Orange Prize for Fiction, their Web site describes the prize:
The Orange prize was set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote fiction by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible and is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman in the English language. Any woman writing in English, whatever her nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter, is eligible.
American women dominate the entries this year, and most of the books are on my to read list. I'm so glad to see Curtis Sittenfeld get more acclaim for American Wife, which has become my favorite book ever.

The shortlist will be released April 21, and the prize will be awarded June 3. Good luck, Curtis!

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