The authors behind the 2006 Booker longlist: Claire Messud

Name: Claire Messud

Date of Birth: 1966.

Nationality: American, but grew up in Australia and Canada.

Book on Booker longlist:  The Emporer's Children, which is about three friends, now on the cusp of their thirties, living in New York City in the run-up to 9/11.

Other books:  When the World Was Steady (1994) and Last Life (1999). She has also written a novella called The Hunters (2001) and writes regular book reviews for various publications, including LA Weekly.

Awards: 1999 Publishers' Weekly Best Book of the Year for Last Life; all three books have been named as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. She has twice been nominated for a PEN Faulkner Award and once for a National Book Award. 

Interesting facts: Her mother is Canadian, her father is of Algerian origin, her sister is French and she's married to a Brit, the literary critic James Wood. She was educated at Yale and Cambridge.

Online resources:
Entry on Wikipedia
Recent author interview in The Independent
Recent author interview in The Observer
Recent author interview in the New York Times
Recent author interview in LA Weekly

Reading Matters comment: I've read so many articles about this author and yet I've never read one of her books. Shameful. But I'm still puzzled as to how she qualifies for the Booker -- is it because she's married to a Brit?

Other books:  When the World Was Steady (1994) and Last Life (1999). She has also written a novella called The Hunters (2001) and writes regular book reviews for various publications, including LA Weekly.

Awards: 1999 Publishers' Weekly Best Book of the Year for Last Life; all three books have been named as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. She has twice been nominated for a PEN Faulkner Award and once for a National Book Award. 

Interesting facts: Her mother is Canadian, her father is of Algerian origin, her sister is French and she's married to a Brit, the literary critic James Wood. She was educated at Yale and Cambridge.

Online resources:
Entry on Wikipedia
Recent author interview in The Independent
Recent author interview in The Observer
Recent author interview in the New York Times
Recent author interview in LA Weekly

Reading Matters comment: I've read so many articles about this author and yet I've never read one of her books. Shameful. But I'm still puzzled as to how she qualifies for the Booker -- is it because she's married to a Brit?

Comments

[Isabella]

She need only be a "citizen" of the Commonwealth -- she likely had Canadian citizenship automatic at birth from her mother.