Congratulations to Jennie Erdal, whose novel The Missing Shade of Blue has been longlisted for the fifth Desmond Elliott Prize 2012! The £10,000 award is for a first novel published in the UK, set up in memory of the celebrated publisher and literary agent Desmond Elliott to 'enrich the careers of new writers'. Jennie is a translator whose memoir Ghosting (2005) tells her story of being the long-serving ghostwriter of Naim Attallah.

The Missing Shade of Blue explores the relationship between two donnish misanthropes in Edinburgh, and takes its title from a philosophical example by David Hume. You can read more about Jennie's passion for Hume in this interview with the Scotsman's David Robinson.

Jennie is represented by Jenny Brown of Jenny Brown associates.

The full longlist: 

Absolution by Patrick Flanery
Bed by David Whitehouse
Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood
Care Of Wooden Floors by Will Wiles
The Land Of Decoration by Grace McCleen
The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness
The Missing Shade of Blue by Jennie Erdal
The Spider King's Daughter by Chibundu Onuzo
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce