This year, the long list of novels selected to compete for the Open Russia Booker Prize is longer than usual. Announced July 1, it comprises 39 entries, nearly two-thirds of all the books that were nominated.

Awarded to the best novel of the year since 1992, the Russian Booker prize was modeled after one of the most venerable international prizes in the English-speaking world and was initially linked to it. This year's jury will boil the long list down to a short one by Oct. 6, and the winner, who will be announced Dec. 2, will take home $15,000.

Certain political overtones are worthy of mention. Since 2002, the award has been sponsored by the Open Russia Foundation, a brainchild of jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. But the new sponsor has not changed the prize-giving policy in any significant way. The Russian Booker firmly rests within the bounds of the literary mainstream, and this year's long list confirms it.

All across the board, the entries include patriarch of dissident prose Vasily Aksyonov's novel "Voltairians," humorous Israeli short-story writer Dina Rubina's "Corporation," the always-popular Lyudmila Ulitskaya's "Sincerely Yours, Shurik" and prodigy Andrei Turgenev's postmodern "The Month of Arcachon." Readers of this column will notice some of our previous heroes among the Booker hopefuls, from Yevgeny Grishkovets with his debut novel "The Shirt" to Lev Gursky with his political satire "The Spear's Trajectory" and Alexander Chervinsky with "Shishkin Wood," a story spanning several generations of a semi-fictional Soviet and Russian intelligentsia family.

The jury this year is somewhat unusual in that only two of its five members are full-time writers. Chairing the proceedings is Vladimir Voinovich, who became a professional author in the early '60s but later developed strong ties with the dissident movement, was expelled from the Writers Union and forced to leave the country. The other professional writer on the jury is Andrei Dmitriyev, who was himself shortlisted in 1996 for his novella "The Turn of the River." Also judging the prize are Nikita Yeliseyev, a critic and bibliographer from St. Petersburg's Russian National Library, Leonid Bykov, a professor at Ural State University in Yekaterinburg, and -- in what may seem an unlikely choice to some -- Garry Bardin, a well-known animated features director with no known literary record apart from screenwriting.

The Russian Booker prize can hardly be called trend-setting, but it does serve as a vital sign that literature in this country is still alive and kicking. As Voinovich said at the long list announcement ceremony, "We have selected about 16 kilograms of books. Almost 40 pounds of decent literature -- that's not bad at all!"