The Man Booker Prize longlist has been announced! It is a wonderful and diverse list with many new books that we are still waiting to have in stock. There are a few that we can already recommend including staff favourite Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, and we’re excited to sink our teeth into the other twelve books.
This year’s longlist of 13 books was selected by a panel of five judges: Margaret Busby (chair), editor, literary critic and former publisher; Lee Child, author; Sameer Rahim, author and critic; Lemn Sissay, writer and broadcaster; and Emily Wilson, classicist and translator.
- The New Wilderness by Diane Cook (Oneworld Publications)
- This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Faber & Faber)
- Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
- Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze (4th Estate, HarperCollins)
- The Mirror & The Light by Hilary Mantel (4th Estate, HarperCollins)
- Apeirogon by Colum McCann (Bloomsbury Publishing)
- The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste (Canongate Books)
- Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (Bloomsbury Circus, Bloomsbury Publishing)
- Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (Picador, Pan Macmillan)
- Real Life by Brandon Taylor (Originals, Daunt Books Publishing)
- Redhead by The Side of The Road by Anne Tyler (Chatto & Windus, Vintage)
- Love and Other Thought Experiments by Sophie Ward (Corsair, Little, Brown)
- How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang (Virago, Little, Brown)
Margaret Busby, Chair of the 2020 judges, says:
“Each of these books carries an impact that has earned it a place on the longlist, deserving of wide readership. Included are novels carried by the sweep of history with memorable characters brought to life and given visibility, novels that represent a moment of cultural change, or the pressures an individual faces in pre- and post-dystopian society. Some of the books focus on interpersonal relationships that are complex, nuanced, emotionally charged. There are voices from minorities often unheard, stories that are fresh, bold and absorbing. The best fiction enables the reader to relate to other people’s lives; sharing experiences that we could not ourselves have imagined is as powerful as being able to identify with characters”.