The Booker Prize shortlist is out, and we’ve done the research for you – so, winning all round.
Small Things Like These
Claire Keegan
In a small Irish town, in 1985, a snowy Christmas is just around the corner and Bill, the fuel and coal merchant, is making his rounds. Cushioned by the warmth of his lovely wife and daughters, a chance sighting at the convent haunts him and his bastard past. Colm Tóibín is a super-fan and so are we. A perfect Sunday night drama of a book.
Treacle Water
Alan Garner
Alan Garner has lived a long time and this latest novel is testament to a life dedicated to the craft of writing. His loopy sentences, full of rural idioms, defy sense, and yet their meaning is perfectly clear. An English-folk novel so concise you can read it in an evening, but the story is so profound you’ll be teasing out the meaning for days to come.
The Seven Moons Of Maali Almeida
Shehan Karunatilaka
Long-listed for the Booker, this cracking novel follows Maali, a smart-talking war photographer and gay party boy, as he navigates his way around the Sri Lankan civil war. Trapped in the spirit world for seven moons, he blithely deals with the Goon squads who come for his posh-kid friends, annoys his weeping mother and hopes that his hidden cache of photos might just end the war. Thrillingly different.
Glory
NoViolet Bulawayo
Somewhere in Africa, a crowd waits in the hot sun for their ailing dictator to arrive. They swipe on their phones and sway to the music, their good clothes are hot and sweaty, but what’s different? The crowd are made up of talking animals. Part parable, part nod to Animal Farm, this tale lifts the lid on the realities of living under fascism and how a groundswell of resistance can eventually make a difference.
