For me, few things herald the arrival of autumn in the literary sphere more than the announcement of the Booker Prize shortlist, one of the world’s foremost literary prize for novels written in English. For a few years now I have attempted to read my way through the shortlist and predict the winner ahead of the awarding of the prize, which is usually sometime in October. It generally works out at one book a week, which for me, in the last couple of years has been a tall order. I never usually manage to read all six books on the shortlist in time; I think my best performance to date has been about five. For some reason we have been given a little longer this year – the winner of the Prize will be announced on 26 November, well over two months from now – so I feel I am in with a fighting chance!
I did not agree with the judges last year – the winner, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, was among my least favourite on the shortlist. I am not familiar with any of the authors on this year’s shortlist. Facts I have gleaned about the shortlist are: there is a two-thirds/one third gender split (guess the proportions); half the authors are called Paul; there is one very long and one very short novel; half the novelists are north American, one is African, and the two Europeans are both Irish!
I am not familiar with any of the shortlisted authors. I was disappointed not to see Sebastian Barry’s Old God’s Time make the shortlist, having been on the longlist. I have just finished that book so look out for my review soon. I also wanted to see Ayobami Adebayo’s A Spell of Good Things make the shortlist as my book club loved her 2017 novel Stay With Me. However, that is the Booker – it never fails to surprise or to be bold and brave and not follow the crowd.
I’m going to kick off my reading marathon with Jonathan Escoffery’s If I Survive You and build up to Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting, which at 656 pages represents the greatest threat to my not completing the shortlist!
Ready, Set, Go…
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