July 27, 2020, 7:30pm
This year’s Booker Prize longlist includes some books you expected—and also quite a few books you didn’t, including eight (8) debuts out of the thirteen books. “It is an unusually high proportion, and especially surprising to the judges themselves, who had admired many books by more established authors, and regretted having to let them go,” Gaby Wood, literary director of the Booker Prize Foundation, told The Guardian. “It is perhaps obvious that powerful stories can come from unexpected places and in unfamiliar forms; nevertheless, this kaleidoscopic list serves as a reminder.” Less surprising is the fact that the American writers are again out in force, for good or ill.
Anyway, you know the drill, folks: the winner of the Booker Prize will take home a £50,000 purse—and, more importantly, lots and lots of book sales. This year’s longlist is below:
Diane Cook, The New Wilderness (US)
Tsitsi Dangarembga, This Mournable Body (Zimbabwe)
Avni Doshi, Burnt Sugar (US)
Gabriel Krauze, Who They Was (UK)
Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and The Light (UK)
Colum McCann, Apeirogon (Ireland-US)
Maaza Mengiste, The Shadow King (Ethiopia-US)
Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age (US)
Brandon Taylor, Real Life (US)
Anne Tyler, Redhead by The Side of the Road (US)
Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain (Scotland-US)
Sophie Ward, Love and Other Thought Experiments (UK)
C Pam Zhang, How Much of These Hills is Gold (US)