The Booker Prize
I have always been curious about literary awards and the prestige they hold. I am not someone who offers undue celebration to books simply because they’ve won a prize (the same applies to films); however, I do understand that within the world of critique, there are certain criteria by which books are measured. While I can see the value in that, I think it’s important for readers to form their own conclusions rather than simply succumbing to what rich white men of the ruling class tell us is worthy. I chose the Booker Prize as it is the most renowned one I am familiar with.
That said, the Booker Prize longlist was beautifully diverse, something I was genuinely worried about going in. We have Black stories, LGBTQ+ stories, narratives of the poor, the rich, the downcast, and voices from across the world, and so much more. That alone makes me feel better about tackling this list. The last thing I want is to read thirteen books all saying the same thing.
The aim of ‘The Booker Prize Game’ is to read at least one book from this list each month. There will be one month where I’ll need to read two, as I’d like to be finished by December so I can give you a full overview of how it all went. I’ll also be sharing quarterly updates, short posts highlighting what I’ve read and how I’m feeling about the challenge so far. I’m not sure yet what order I’ll be reading in, but I’ll be sure to let you know in my monthly TBR posts. So unto the list!
Longlisted Books
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Tom lives a slow, deliberate life working his grandfather’s trade as a shanker. His heart is in his music, but these ambitions seem far away. When a striking visitor turns up, Tom hopes to broaden the narrow horizons he’s begun to strain against, but how much of what he says is true?
Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga
Albania was a country that made you uneasy and tense, but alert and alive. It infuriated, exasperated, without apology or retribution, and yet one felt seen here, often even loved. The urge to escape its stifling confinement was tinged with unexpected melancholy – for foreigners and natives alike.
The South by Tash Aw
The South unfolds during a visit by the Lim family to their rural clan estate after a long absence. Jay, in his mid-teens, finds he’s expected to share a room with Chuan, the son of the estate’s overseer. The two soon form an intense bond, but the course of their relationship is always an unspoken question.
Love Forms by Claire Adam
Trinidad, 1980: Dawn Bishop, aged 16, leaves her home and goes to Venezuela. There, she gives birth to a baby girl and gives her up for adoption. Forty years later, a woman from an internet forum gets in touch, saying that she might be Dawn’s long-lost daughter.
Endling by Maria Reva
Ukraine, 2022. Yeva, Nastia and Solomiya, a journey of a lifetime across hundreds of miles: three angry women, a truckful of kidnapped bachelors, but their plans come to a screeching halt as Russia invades.
One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
On losing her father, Teresa returns to a small town on the Greek coast – the same place she visited when grieving her mother nine years ago. She immerses herself again in the life of the town. Soon, Teresa encounters some of the people she met last time.
Universality by Natasha Brown
On a Yorkshire farm, a man is brutally bludgeoned with a solid gold bar. A young journalist sets out to uncover the truth connecting the dots between an amoral banker landlord, an iconoclastic columnist, and a radical anarchist movement. She solves the mystery, but her exposé raises more questions than it answers.
Shortlisted Books
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
In a village, local doctor Eric Parry mulls secrets, while his pregnant wife sleeps. Across the field, Rita Simmons is also asleep, her head full of images of a past life her husband prefers to ignore. When the English December gives way to violent blizzards, the two couples find their lives beginning to unravel.
Audition by Katie Kitamura
Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an elegant and accomplished actress. He’s attractive, troubling, and young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him?
The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovitz
When Tom’s wife cheated, he said, as soon as his youngest daughter turned eighteen, he would leave. 12 years later, while driving her to university, he remembers his pact. Holding secrets that he hasn’t yet told his wife, after dropping Miriam off, he keeps driving, with the vague plan of visiting people from his past – on route, maybe, to his father’s grave.
Flashlight by Susan Choi
One summer night, ten-year-old Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, barely alive. Her father is gone. But now it is just Louisa and Anne (her mother), adrift and facing the challenges of ordinary life in the wake of great loss.
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Sonia, A college student lonely and homesick for India, turns to an older artist for intimacy, a man who will cast a dark spell on the next many years of her life. Sunny is lonely, too. A struggling journalist originally from Delhi, perplexed by America. As Sonia and Sunny each become more alienated, they begin to question their understanding of happiness, human connection, and where they belong.
WINNER!
Flesh by David Szalay
Through chance, luck and choice, István’s life takes him from a modest apartment in Hungary to the elite society of London. First, a 15-year-old in a clandestine relationship with a married woman old enough to be his mother to the elite circles of London’s super-rich, he navigates the twenty-first century’s tides of money and power.
I use Goodreads as my main reading platform. It’s the largest, most accessible, and most popular, so if you’re looking for a consensus from people who are actively reading and sharing opinions, that’s where I tend to look. I also use Fable and am exploring other platforms, particularly those better suited to niche or critically acclaimed books. You’ll notice I’ve included the Goodreads rating for each book in the synopsis, and you might start to see a pattern. Many of these books have very average ratings, which I find genuinely intriguing.
This challenge was always my most ambitious one, as you’ll know if you read my look ahead in my end-of-year wrap-up. Now, though, I feel even more driven by curiosity—specifically, a desire to understand why these books were awarded such prestige.I often say there can be a disconnect between what an author intends and what a reader takes away.
I often say there can be a disconnect between what an author intends and what a reader takes away. There are plenty of times when readers simply don’t understand what an author is trying to do, or, as we say, they’ve ‘missed the point’. That argument, however, assumes that readers are somehow not intelligent enough. I’ve seen people rate Toni Morrison poorly simply because they can’t compute the complexity of her writing and storytelling, and that is a real issue—literacy and critical reasoning are at an all-time low.
However, the assumption that a highbrow writer must automatically be more intelligent than the majority of their readers is both classist and, frankly, quite insulting. While I may not trust the judgment of every single reader on GoodReads, they aren’t all stupid. If most readers consider a book average, there has to be a reason for that, and I want to find out what it is. Is the book not that good, or have they all missed the point? Of course, while I do consider myself a fairly learned individual, I’m by no means the smartest or most well-read person on the planet. Take all of this with a grain of salt and remember that, ultimately, it’s all subjective.
I’m quite excited about this challenge, but even more curious to see how it unfolds and what I discover along the way. That said, it’s still an ambitious undertaking, because one thing about me is that I refuse to read under duress. I’m completely open to DNF-ing books on this list, and if I feel even an ounce of boredom, I’ll be saying so. While this is very much a learning journey, reading is still my favourite hobby, and I have no intention of ruining the joy it brings me.
I hope you’ll join me on this journey. I’ll be exploring ways to make it interactive and as interesting as possible for you all.
Thank you, as always, for being here—see you next time.
Signed,
