newsletter issue 179

There’s nothing like the Booker Prize longlist to set the cat among the bookworms. The authors better not all be American! How many debut authors? How many women? How many former winners on the longlist? Is there a slim novel I can start reading at lunch this afternoon? Are they rewarding one work, or is it about recognising an author’s entire body of work through one proxy? The final decision to pick a winner, too, seems fraught with peril. In the past, Bernardine Evaristo having to share the 2019 Booker Prize for Girl, Woman, Other with Margaret Atwood for The Testaments seemed like one the greatest literary injustices to occur in our lifetime (no matter how fond you are of the latter).

On this year’s Booker Prize longlist is Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, which she’s been writing for almost two decades, since she won the Prize in 2006. Two of my favourite authors, Katie Kitamura (for Audition) and Susan Choi (for Flashlight), are there too. There are two debut works—Endling by Canadian-Ukrainian author Maria Reva and Misinterpretation by American-Albanian Ledia Xhoga. There’s already been a lot of buzz around Flesh by David Szalay, and the longlisting will only get it to more TBR piles. Last year’s list threw up gems like Stone Yard Devotional, The Safekeep and Orbital (which won). Maybe this year’s will too.

We have till November 10, when the winner will be announced. Start reading. For other things to read, scroll down.