Longlist for 2014 Guardian First Book Award Announced

Posted on August 8, 2014

The Guardian has announced the longlist for the 2014 Guardian First Book Award. The literary award recognizes one book by a new writer and carries a prize of £10,000.

Here is the longlist:

Fiction:

Young Skins by Colin Barrett (Jonathan Cape)
The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane (Sceptre)
After Me Comes the Flood by Sarah Perry (Serpent's Tail)
We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas (4th Estate)
In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman (Picador)

Nonfiction:

The Iceberg: A Memoir by Marion Coutts (Atlantic)
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos (Bodley Head)
American Interior: The Quixotic Journey of John Evans by Gruff Rhys (Hamish Hamilton)
Bricks & Mortals: Ten Great Buildings and the People They Made by Tom Wilkinson (Bloomsbury)

Short story collection - Reader's Choice:

Things to Make and Break by May-Lan Tan (CB editions)

The longlist has ten titles selected from book submitted by publishers. One slot is reserved for a title picked from nominations by readers. This year, May-Lan Tan claimed the Reader's Choice longlist spot with her well-reviewed short story collection which has amazing buzz. The judging panel includes reviewer Lisa Allardice, who chairs the panel, classicist Mary Beard, psychoanalyst Josh Cohen, author Anne Enright and MP and historian Tristram Hunt. Waterstones reading groups are reading all the titles and will issue their own picks. The Waterstones groups' verdict will be factored in the final decision by the judging panel, although it's not exactly clear how much weight it will be given.

The winner will be announced at the end of November. Zadie Smith, Kevin Powers and Donal Ryan all are prior winners of the prize. Donal Ryan won last year for his novel The Spinning Heart, a novella set during the Great Recession in a small Irish town which was published by Doubleday Ireland. No clear favorite has emerged yet for this year's prize, but it's an interesting group of titles.