Rushdie's Fury not in Booker list

london: the booker season is growing longer and the publicity drive much fiercer as the prestigious literary prize announces its first-ever "longlist" and fuels controversy about the depths to which salman rushdie's fiction has sunk, two months before it hands out the award. the 24-book "longlist", from which a shortlist will emerge next month, includes v s naipaul for his forthcoming half a life, and one-book wonder indian american manil suri for the death of vishnu.but rushdie's new book fury, due out on august 30, has been omitted. booker prize sources told the times of india, each of the five judges felt rushdie's account of an ageing dilettantes love life was "extraordinarily poor". the "longlist", a controversial innovation seen as a marketing gimmick for the lucky dozens, contains some of the usual suspects. these include five-times shortlisted beryl bainbridge and former winners nadine gordimer, ian mcewan, james kelman and peter carey. the list also includes a more populist selection, such as nick hornby and melvyn bragg. in yet another sign of the times, the longlist features a popular read still selling thousands of copies a week 10 months after publication, philip pullman's the amber spyglass. pullman's book, which some say is the first children's book to be seriously considered for a booker, deals with the mulefa, mysterious wheeled creatures with the power to see dust, and is considered another sign that the prize wants to be seen as more contemporary. but prize administrator martin goff told this paper, "in all my 31 years with the booker, we've never actually banned anything, p d james, for instance. i always tell my judges, you're looking for the best novel of the year. what is best is purposely left vague." the booker longlist has set the bookmakers in motion early, with long odds being offered for naipaul and suri to win. the asian contingent tails bainbridge and the popular fiction brigade, hornby and bragg, by a long way. goff, who cautiously revealed a personal favourite, ziv jagendorf's wolfy and the strudelbakers, said he was unsure about the odds offered by the bookies. but commentators say the booker is going the way of all literary prizes and is engaged in a constant and ludicrous fight for public attention. for instance, it is publicising the bookies almost-jokey lament at not being included in the panel of judges despite "having read all the books and being asked for a reliable tip-off". but industry watchers say it is hardly surprising the booker is trying to change with the times, now that it has lost its special status as the best-endowed literary prize to the orange prize for women's writing.