Here's the just-released longlist for the coveted Man Booker Prize for Fiction, awarded to novels whose authors are from the Commonwealth and/or Ireland. Previous winners include Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Ian McEwan's Amsterdam, and Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient. (The most buzzed-about novel on this year's list, Joseph O'Neill's Netherland, involves cricket. New Yorker critic James Wood called it "one of the most remarkable post-colonial books I have ever read.")Aravind Adiga: The White Tiger Gaynor Arnold: Girl in a Blue Dress Sebastian Barry: The Secret Scripture John Berger: From A to X Michelle de Kretser: The Lost Dog Amitav Ghosh: Sea of Poppies Linda Grant: The Clothes on Their Backs Mohammed Hanif: A Case of Exploding Mangoes Philip Hensher: The Northern Clemency Joseph O'Neill Netherland Salman Rushdie The Enchantress of Florence Tom Rob Smith: Child 44 Steve Toltz: A Fraction of the Whole Chair of Judges Michael Portillo said of this year's Man Booker Dozen, "The list covers an extraordinary variety of writing. Still two qualities emerge this year: large scale narrative and the striking use of humour." [The Man Booker Prize Website]