MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018: HERE ARE THE NOMINEES...

The longlist of the muchanticipated literary award includes 13 books this year, comprising seven written by women and one graphic novel

The longlist of nominees for the most prestigious literary prize in Britain, Man Booker Prize 2018, is out. The announcement has the bibliophile circuit abuzz as the list includes a graphic novel for the first time in decades, confirmed Entertainment Weekly. What’s more is that this year’s list is dominated by women, with seven books penned by female authors.

Nick Drnaso’s critically acclaimed graphic novel, Sabrina, traces the impact of a woman’s disappearance from various perspectives, revealing a culture without responsibility and the dangers of a fake-news climate.

The prize also honours the best in English language literature, with American writers Paul Beatty (author of The Sellout) and George Saunders (author of Lincoln in the Bardo) bagging the honour for two consecutive years (2016 and 2017, respectively).

This year, six of the nominees are from the UK, three from the US, and two each from Ireland and Canada.

Two-time National Book Award nominee Rachel Kushner (for The Mars Room), former Man Booker Prize winner Michael Ondaatje (for Warlight), and Belinda Bauer (for Snap) have also found in a place in the 2018 longlist.

Below are the authors and their books nominated for the 2018 Man Booker Prize:

■ Belinda Bauer, Snap

■ Anna Burns, Milkman

■ Nick Drnaso, Sabrina

■ Michael Ondaatje, Warlight

■ Esi Edugyan, Washington Black

■ Guy Gunaratne, In Our Mad and Furious City

■ Daisy Johnson, Everything Under

■ Rachel Kushner, The Mars Room

■ Sophie Mackintosh, The Water Cure

■ Richard Powers, The Overstory

■ Robin Robertson, The Long Take

■ Sally Rooney, Normal People

■ Donal Ryan, From a Low and Quiet Sea

Washington Black is Canadian author Esi Edugyan’s fourth book. She was previously nominated for the Man Booker Prize for her 2011 novel HalfBlood Blues

Guy Gunaratne and Daisy Johnson’s debut novels — In Our Mad and Furious City and Everything Under, respectively — are nominated in Man Booker 2018 longlist

Nick Drnaso’s graphic novel, Sabrina (extreme left), is a story of a young girl who goes missing — with the answers to her whereabouts possibly hidden in a videotape

Michael Ondaatje, whose novel Warlight (above) has been nominated this year, won the Booker in 1992 for The English Patient