Not the Booker prize longlist: vote now to decide the 2020 shortlist

We now have a Not the Booker longlist – and it’s a very, very long longlist. We have more than 200 eligible books this year, which is a record for the competition. It’s also a fantastic endorsement of the work writers and publishers have been doing in this past year, in spite of … everything. Not to mention a welcome reminder of the enthusiasm and generosity of readers and all those who have taken the time to nominate their favourite book published between October 2019 and September 2020.

Now, it’s time to start reading some of these books, and (hopefully) discussing how excellent they are. To get to this next stage, we need to whittle down that mighty list of 211 books to a more manageable three, so we can add those to our other three titles (one selected by last year’s judging panel; one by the independent bookshop of the year, Book-ish in Crickhowell; and one by Harrogate library, current holders of the library of the year award.)

As so often in this competition, when I say “we”, I actually mean “you”. Because it’s your vote that will help decide which three books make it on to our shortlist.

Voting is easy – but there are a few rules, so read what follows carefully to ensure your voice is heard.

In order for your vote to be counted and comply with our forever joyful terms and conditions, you need to nominate two books from the longlist below. These should come from two different publishers. You must accompany these two choices with a short review of at least one of your chosen books. It would also be very helpful if you could include the word “vote”.

We’re hoping for a minimum of 100 words in the review. We won’t be counting all that carefully, but do show us that you care about the book/s enough to give us your honest feelings.

That’s it. As I say, it is easy, but every year a few people get confused and we’re unable to count their votes. So please check your entry carefully.

You’ve got just over two weeks to get your votes in. The next deadline is 23.59 BST on Sunday 16 August. Please make sure you nominate your favourite books before then and we’ll announce the results on 17 August.

As is traditional, I must express gratitude to Tips, links and suggestions stalwart and spreadsheet hero Lisa Jones, for her help in checking eligibility and titles. And as is also usual, when you see the size of the list, you’ll understand why I’m so glad she’s been helping. Here it is:

Ben Aaronovitch – False Values (Gollancz)

Haleh Agar – Out of Touch (Weidenfeld and Nicolson)

Shahnaz Ahsan – Hashim & Family (John Murray/Hodder)

Molly Aitken - The Island Child (Canongate)

Susan Allott – The Silence (HarperCollins)

Celia Anderson – The Cottage of Curiosities (HarperCollins)

Robbie Arnott – The Rain Heron (Atlantic Books)

Dani Atkins – A Million Dreams (Head of Zeus)

Lucy Atkins – Magpie Lane (Quercus Books)

Richard Ayre – A Life Eternal (Burning Chair)

JA Baker – The Girl I Used to Be (Bloodhound Books)

A Naji Bakhti – Between Beirut and the Moon (Influx Press)

Leigh Bardugo – Ninth House (Gollancz)

Debra Barnes – The Young Survivors (Duckworth Books)

Sebastian Barry – A Thousand Moons (Faber)

Penny Batchelor – My Perfect Sister (Red Door Press)

Jan Baynham – Her Mother’s Secret (Ruby Fiction)

Tom Benjamin – A Quiet Death in Italy (Constable)

Brit Bennett – The Vanishing Half (Dialogue)

Lisa Blower – Pondweed (Myriad)

Maame Blue – Bad Love (Jacaranda Books)

Chris Bonnello – Underdogs (Unbound Books)

Owen Booth - The All True Adventures (and Rare Education) of the Daredevil Daniel Bones (4th Estate)

Philip Bowne - Cows Can’t Jump (Neem Tree Press)

John Boyne - A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom (Doubleday)

Nick Bradley - The Cat and the City (Atlantic Books)

DC Brockwell - No Way Out (Bloodhound Books)

Matt Brolly - The Crossing (Thomas & Mercer)

Sarah Burton - The Strange Adventures of H (Legend Press)

Sara Butler - Jack & Bet (Picador)

Louise Candlish - The Other Passenger (Simon and Schuster UK)

Maisy Card - These Ghosts Are Family (Simon and Schuster UK)

Will Carver - Hinton Hollow Death Trip (Orenda Books)

Anne Charnock - Bridge 108 (47North)

Eliza Clark – Boy Parts (Influx Press)

Susanna Clarke – Piranesi (Bloomsbury)

Anne Coates – Perdition’s Child (Urbane Publications)

Julie Cohen – Spirited (Orion)

Mary Costello – The River Capture (Canongate)

Tom Cox – Ring the Hill (Unbound Books)

Amanda Craig – The Golden Rule (Little, Brown)

Pamela Crane – One Perfect Morning (Avon)

MW Craven – The Curator (Constable)

Helen Cullen – The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually (Michael Joseph)

Jeanine Cummins – American Dirt (Tinder)

Paul Bassett Davies – Please Do Not Ask for Mercy as a Refusal Often Offends (Lightning Books)

Russell Day – King of the Crows (Fahrenheit)

Will Dean – Black River (Point Blank)

Jocelyn Dexter – Shh (Bloodhound Books)

Patricia Dixon – #MeToo (Bloodhound Books)

Naoise Dolan – Exciting Times (Weidenfeld and Nicolson)

Matthew Dooley – Flake (Jonathan Cape)

Hayley Doyle – Never Saw You Coming (Avon)

Rob Doyle – Threshold (Bloomsbury)

Philippa East – Little White Lies (HQ)

James Ellson – The Trail (Unbound Books)

Anne Enright – Actress (Jonathan Cape)

Tim Ewins – We Are Animals (Lightning Books)

Elaine Feeney – As You Were (Harvill Secker)

Louise Fein – People Like Us (Head of Zeus)

Jasper Fforde – The Constant Rabbit (Hodder and Stoughton)

Jackson Ford – Random Sh*t Flying through the Air (Orbit Books)

RM Francis – Bella (Wild Pressed Books)

Maeve Galvin – The Saviours (Merdog Books)

Molly Gartland – The Girl from the Hermitage (Lightning Books)

Mike Gayle – All the Lonely People (Hodder and Stoughton)

William Gibson – Agency (Berkley/Penguin)

Elisabeth Gifford – The Lost Lights of St Kilda (Corvus)

Nicola Gill – We Are Family (Avon)

Nicola Gill – The Neighbours (Avon)

Clio Gray – Archimimus (Urbane Publications)

Garth Greenwell – Cleanness (Picador)

Mark Grenside – Fall Out (Urbane Publications)

Janice Hadlow – The Other Bennet Sister (Mantle)

Rona Halsall – One Mistake (Bookouture)

Julie Hamill – Jackie (Saron Publishing)

Chris Hammer – Silver (Allen & Unwin)

Heleyne Hammersley – Reunion (Bloodhound Books)

Louise Hare – This Lovely City (HarperCollins)

Kiran Millwood Hargrave – The Mercies (Picador)

Mary Hargreaves – This Is Not a Love Story (Trapeze)

Anstey Harris – Where We Belong (Simon and Schuster)

M John Harrison – The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again (Gollancz)

Gillian Harvey – Everything Is Fine (Orion)

Ruth Heald – I Know Your Secret (Bookouture)

Kirsten Hesketh – Another Us (Canelo Books)

Monica Hesse – They Went Left (Little, Brown)

Nydia Hetherington – A Girl Made of Air (Quercus Books)

MT Hill – The Breach (Titan Books)

Noelle Holten – Dead Wrong (Harper Collins)

Steven Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi – Stoker’s Wilde West (Flame Tree Press)

Gill Hornby – Miss Austen (Century)

Caoilinn Hughes – The Wild Laughter (Oneworld Publications)

Andrew Michael Hurley – Starve Acre (Dead Ink Books)

Sairish Hussain – The Family Tree (HQ)

Scott Innes – Galactic Keegan (Unbound Books)

Christina James – Chasing Hares (Salt)

Heidi James – The Sound Mirror (Bluemoose Books)

Tomasz Jedrowski – Swimming in the Dark (Bloomsbury)

NK Jemisin – The City We Became (Orbit Books)

Amanda Jennings – The Storm (HQ)

Stephen Graham Jones – The Only Good Indians (Titan Books)

Charlie Kaufman – Ant Kind (4th Estate)

Valerie Keogh – The Perfect Life (Bloodhound Books)

Marian Keyes – Grown Ups (Michael Joseph)

Laurie L King – Riviera Gold (Allison and Busby)

Lily King - Writers & Lovers (Harper Collins)

Matthew Kneale - Pilgrims (Atlantic Books)

Alex Knight - Hunted (Orion)

Dorothy Koomson - All My Lies Are True (Headline Review)

Eleni Kyriacou - She Came to Stay (Hodder and Stoughton)

Nikita Lalwani - You People (Viking)

Julie Lancaster - The Weight of Small Things (Mirror Books)

Ariel Lawhon - Code Name Hélène (Headline Review)

John le Carré - Agent Running in the Field (Viking)

Ben Lerner – The Topeka School (Granta)

Charlotte Levin - If I Can’t Have You (Pan Macmillan)

Rebecca Ley - For When I’m Gone (Orion)

Lia Louis - Dear Emmie Blue (Trapeze)

SE Lynes - Can You See Her? (BookOuture)

Sarah J Maas - Crescent City (Bloomsbury)

Tim MacGabhann - How to Be Nowhere (Weidenfeld and Nicolson)

Ian MacPherson - SLOOT (Bluemoose Books)

Emily St John Mandel - The Glass Hotel (Harper Collins)

Abigail Mann - The Lonely Fajita (One More Chapter)

Hilary Mantel - The Mirror and the Light (4th Estate)

Clare Marchant - The Secrets of Saffron Hall (Avon Harper Collins)

Rachel Marks - Saturdays at Noon (Penguin)

John Marrs - What Lies Between Us (Thomas & Mercer)

Adam Mars-Jones - Box Hill (Fitzcarraldo)

Angela Marsons - Killing Mind (BookOuture)

James McBride - Deacon King Kong (Penguin)

Colum McCann - Apeirogon (Bloomsbury)

Holly McCulloch - Just Friends (Penguin)

Tiffany McDaniel - Betty (Weidenfeld and Nicolson)

Sue McDonagh - Escape to the Art Café (Choc Lit)

Brian McGilloway - The Last Crossing (The Dome Press)

Adam McQueen - Beneath the Streets (Lightning Books)

Paul Mendez - Rainbow Milk (Dialogue)

Maaza Mengiste - The Shadow King (Canongate)

Catherine Miller - The Day That Changed Everything (BookOuture)

Lydia Millet - A Children’s Bible (WW Norton)

Miranda Miller - Angelica, Paintress of Minds (Barbican Press)

David Mitchell - Utopia Avenue (Sceptre)

Beth Morrey - Saving Missy (HarperCollins)

Amir Mukherjee - Death in the East (Vintage)

Owen Mullen - Deadly Harm (Bloodhound Books)

Michael Nath - The Treatment (Quercus Books)

Doireann Ní Ghríofa - A Ghost in the Throat (Tramp Press)

John Nicholl - Mr. Nice (Bloodhound Books)

Suzy Norman - The Ground Is Full of Holes (Patrician)

Caroline O’Donoghue - Scenes of a Graphic Nature (Virago)

Maggie O’Farrell - Hamnet (Tinder)

Jenny Offill - Weather (Granta Books)

Judith O’Reilly - Curse the Day (Head of Zeus)

Ben Pastor - The Night of Shooting Stars (Bitter Lemon Press)

Vikki Patis - Girl, Lost (Bloodhound Books)

Nell Pattison - The Silent House (Avon Harper Collins)

Hannah Persaud - The Codes of Love (Muswell Press)

Sylvia Petter - All the Beautiful Liars (Lightning Books)

Clare Pooley - The Authenticity Project (Bantam Press)

Alastair Puddick - 46% Better than Dave (Raven Crest Books)

Philip Pullman - The Secret Commonwealth (Penguin)

Holly Race - Midnight’s Twins (Zaffre Publishing)

Natasha Randall - Love Orange (Quercus Books)

Ann Rawson - The Witch House (Red Dog Press)

Jessica Redland - Making Wishes at Bay View (Boldwood Books)

Kiley Reid - Such a Fun Age (Bloomsbury)

Jon Richter - The Rabbit Hole (Bloodhound Books)

Richard Owain Roberts - Hello Friend We Missed You (Parthian)

Monique Roffey - The Mermaid of Black Conch (Peepal Tree Press)

Jeneva Rose - The Perfect Marriage (Bloodhound Books)

Meg Rosoff - The Great Godden (Bloomsbury)

Matthew Ross - Death of a Painter (Red Dog Press)

Polly Samson - A Theatre for Dreamers (Bloomsbury)

Lesley Sanderson - I Know You Lied (BookOuture)

Stephanie Scott - What Is Left of Me Is Yours (Weidenfeld and Nicolson)

James Scudamore - English Monsters (Jonathan Cape)

Lynne Shelby - The Summer of Taking Chances (Headline Review)

Ali Smith - Summer (Hamish Hamilton)

Eve Smith - The Waiting Rooms (Orenda Books)

Nikki Smith - All in Her Head (Orion)

Jay Stringer - Marah Chase and the Fountain of Youth (Pegasus Books)

Elizabeth Strout - Olive, Again (Penguin)

Graham Swift - Here We Are (Scribner UK)

Emma Tallon - Fearless Girl (BookOuture)

Brandon Taylor - Real Life (Daunt Books)

Joe Thomas - Bent (Arcadia Books)

Ali Thurm - One Scheme of Happiness (Retreat West Books)

Janet Todd - Don’t You Know There’s a War on? (Fentum Press)

Francine Toon - Pine (Doubleday)

Anne Tyler - Redhead by the Side of the Road (Chatto and Windus)

Jeff Vandermeer - Dead Astronauts (4th Estate)

Anna Vaught - Saving Lucia (Bluemoose Books)

Meredith Vivian - Running Hard (Pegasus Books)

Shola von Reinhold - Lote (Jacaranda Books)

Clare Wade - The Choice (Orion)

Cat Walker - The Scoop (Red Door Press)

Rosie Walker - Secrets of a Serial Killer (One More Chapter)

Anita Waller - Gamble (Bloodhound Books)

Kawai Strong Washburn - Sharks in the Time of Saviors (Canongate)

Roz Watkins - Cut to the Bone (HQ)

Chris Whitaker - We Begin At the End (Zaffre Publishing)

Eley Williams - The Liar’s Dictionary (William Heinemann)

Paul Williams - Twelve Days (Bloodhound Books)

Charlotte Wood - The Weekend (Weidenfeld and Nicholson)

Nick Wood - Water Must Fall (NewCon Press)

Trevor Wood - The Man on the Street (Quercus Books)

Evie Wyld - The Bass Rock (Jonathan Cape)

An Yu - Braised Pork (Harvill Secker)

C Pam Zhang - How Much of These Hills Is Gold (Virago)

• This article was amended on 3 August 2020 to correct the title of Philippa East’s novel. It is Little White Lies, not Little White Eyes as we stated.