Three of the 13 works on the longlist are debut novels: Selby Wynn Schwartz’s “After Sappho,” Leila Mottley’s “Nightcrawling,” and Maddie Mortimer’s “Maps of our Spectacular Bodies.” Leila Mottley, who is 20 years old, is now the youngest author to ever be longlisted, with Alan Garner, 87, being the oldest. The shortest book to ever make the longlist, “Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan is only 116 pages long.
This year’s Booker jury members include novelist and poet Alain Mabanckou, scholar and broadcaster Shahidha Bari, historian Helen Castor, author and critic M. John Harrison, and cultural historian and writer Neil MacGregor. 169 submissions were read by the judges in total. Regardless of the genre, they are incredibly well-written, expertly made, and seem to us to exploit and expand
According to Neil MacGregor, chair of the Booker Prize 2022 judges, “exceptionally well written and carefully crafted, in whatever genre, they seem to us to exploit and expand what the language can do.”
The longlist for the 2022 Booker Prize is shown below:
Three of the 13 works on the longlist are debut novels: Selby Wynn Schwartz’s “After Sappho,” Leila Mottley’s “Nightcrawling,” and Maddie Mortimer’s “Maps of our Spectacular Bodies.” Leila Mottley, who is 20 years old, is now the youngest author to ever be longlisted, with Alan Garner, 87, being the oldest. The shortest book to ever make the longlist, “Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan is only 116 pages long.
This year’s Booker jury members include novelist and poet Alain Mabanckou, scholar and broadcaster Shahidha Bari, historian Helen Castor, author and critic M. John Harrison, and cultural historian and writer Neil MacGregor. 169 submissions were read by the judges in total. Regardless of the genre, they are incredibly well-written, expertly made, and seem to us to exploit and expand
According to Neil MacGregor, chair of the Booker Prize 2022 judges, “exceptionally well written and carefully crafted, in whatever genre, they seem to us to exploit and expand what the language can do.”
The longlist for the 2022 Booker Prize is shown below:
By NoViolet Bulawayo, ‘Glory’
The long-serving ruler of a fictional nation, the Old Horse, is overthrown in the book, and the drama that ensues for an anarchic society of animals on the road to real independence is chronicled.
‘Trust’, a Hernan Diaz book
The book draws the reader into a quest for the truth while confronting the lies that frequently underlie interpersonal relationships, the power of money to warp reality, and the simplicity with which facts may be manipulated by those in positions of authority.
‘The Trees’ by Percival Everett
In Money, Mississippi, the scene of Emmett Till’s 1955 murder, a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and killed after being wrongly convicted of a crime, the plot of the book centres on a series of weird and terrible homicides.
‘Booth by Karen’ Joy Fowler
It is a historical fiction about John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, and his family.
Alan Garner’s ‘Treacle Walker’
The story centres on a little child named Joe who forms an odd connection after receiving a visit from a wanderer and healer. A vibrant novel that vividly illuminates an introspective young mind attempting to make sense of everything around him, it is a stunning mix of myth and folklore and an examination of the fluidity of time.
Shahan Karunatilaka’s ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’
A war photographer who was caught up in the atrocities of a civil war and who later died in what appeared to be a celestial immigration office is the subject of this novel. He has a limited amount of time left in the afterlife. He has seven moons to try to get in touch with the people he loves the most and direct them to a secret stash of images that will upend Sri Lanka.
Claire Keegan’s ‘Small Things Like These’
The shortest book on the list is a feminist retelling of Charles Dickens, who constructs a life as a coal dealer, husband, and father to five girls while experiencing moral and religious dilemmas.
By Graeme Macrae Burnet, ‘Case Study’
In this novel, an unworldly young woman thinks that her sister committed suicide as a result of Collins Braithwaite, a seductive psychotherapist. She creates a fictitious identity and poses as a client to him in an effort to prove her suspicions, documenting her interactions with him in a number of notebooks.
Audrey Magee’s ‘The Colony’
Despite the potential costs to the locals, two outsiders visit a little island off the west coast in 1979 as turmoil explodes throughout Ireland in quest of their own answers.
Maddie Mortimer’s ‘Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies’
It is a tale of adolescence at the tail end of a life. It is a symphonic voyage through one woman’s body, a wild and poetic celebration of desire, forgiveness, and the darkness within us all. It is utterly heartbreaking yet darkly humorous.
Leila Mottley’s ‘Nightcrawling’
“Nightcrawling,” which is based on a true crime from 2015 involving institutional exploitation, brutality, and corruption in the Oakland police department, gives voice to Kiara Johnson, a 17-year-old who, following the death of her father and the detention of her mother in a rehab facility, turns to sex work to pay for rent increases.
Author Selby Lynn Schwartz’s ‘After Sappho’
The Italian poet Lina Poletti is introduced as a baby in 1880s Italy as the book goes through time highlighting revolutionary authors and artists including Virginia Woolf, Josephine Baker, and Radclyffe Hall.
Elizabeth Strout’s ‘Oh William!’
With great delicacy and subtlety, the book examines William and Lucy’s relationship, both in the past and the present. This includes their first infatuation, their blunders, their enduring memories and links, and their continued susceptibility, fragility, and dependence on one another.
For those who are unfamiliar, the International Booker Prize, which honours translation, should not be confused with the Booker Prize for Fiction. This is the main prize given out by the Booker Foundation, and the winner gets £50,000. Each of the final six authors to be shortlisted will get £2,500 and a book that has been carefully bound.
Finally, the six novels that make up the shortlist will be revealed on September 6 and the winner will be revealed on October 17.
