Man Booker Longlist Announced

"The Man Booker judges have presented 'vibrant' list for the prize’s longlist mainly focusing on disasters ranging from the financial to the natural. Heavyweight authors including Margaret Atwood, JM Coetzee, Roddy Doyle and David Peace missed out.
     The judges took nine months to sift through 151 works, the most in recent times by a Booker jury, before coming up with 13 titles for the 2013 longlist for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
     Jonny Geller, joint chief executive of literary and talent agency Curtis Brown, said: 'It is one of the few longlists in recent years where I want to read more than a handful. Full of life, vibrancy and different worlds. The absence of some big names is not the point; the inclusion of new ones is what is exciting.'”
— Nick Clark, The Independent
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The life and works of the late Iain Banks to be celebrated at the Edinborough International Book Festival

From: eBay

"The lineup of over 700 events for this year's [Edinborough international book] festival was announced today, with appearances at the festival site in Charlotte Square Gardens from major literary names including Roddy Doyle, Kate Atkinson, John Banville, Antonia Fraser and Edna O'Brien.

     As the festival marks its 30th anniversary, Salman Rushdie – chosen for the 1983 Granta best of young British novelists list – will be looking back on his career over the last 30 years, Margaret Atwood will be chairing a series of events on genre, and Colm Tóibín will be tackling Sons and Lovers as part of a new series of workshops in which the audience is guided through a close reading of a favourite book."
— Alison Flood, The Guardian
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Buy all of Ian Banks' books here...