Longlist for the Booker 2007

I just got an email from Publishers Weekly announcing the longlist of nominees for this year's Man Booker Prize - one of the biggies in the literary world. The Prize rewards the best novel of the year written by a living citizen of the British Commonwealth, the Republic of Ireland or Zimbabwe. The long list has the "Booker Dozen" - the top 13 books chosen by an illustrious panel of judges, which will be whittled down to the short list and then the winner. I'm embarrassed to admit that when I read this year's list I recognized exactly ONE of the books - On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan - and I haven't even read it. So I was somewhat relieved to find that the Guardian book pages (always excellent and thorough coverage of the Booker prize) announced that the list is "one of the most remarkable surprises" in the Prize's history because of the number of "lesser-known" authors; 4 of the books are debuts.