TOB 2020 Longlist

[Janet]

Jan wrote: "So I've read 25 and have 6 on my TBR table or in my audiobook queue.

I already mentioned liking Bangkok Wakes to Rain. I also loved Lost Children Archive, The Old Drift, Disappearing Earth, Girl ..."

25 is very impressive! It would be interesting to see how your 25 matches up with the shortlist.

[Amanda]

Lauren wrote: "This is a great list! While I'm also sad Cantoras isn't on here (likely my favorite book of the year) I'm ok with the fact that I won't have to see it torn apart. ;)

I've read seven already - the..."

I read the Testaments on audio and enjoyed it. It read a lot like the Claire Danes version of The Handmaid's Tale. My main quibble is that there are two narrators who's voices sounded similar to my ear. It would take me a minute to figure out who was telling that part of the story

[Janet]

I did a quick check and 17 of the titles are available through Hoopla. I don't know....does it vary by library? In any event, most of the ones available to me were in e-book form not audio. I don't ordinarily read e-books but it might be worth a look....and I wouldn't even have to leave the comfort of my armchair.

[Lauren]

Amanda wrote: "Lauren wrote: "This is a great list! While I'm also sad Cantoras isn't on here (likely my favorite book of the year) I'm ok with the fact that I won't have to see it torn apart. ;)

I've read seve..."

I should probably do this one in print then (if it makes it onto the short list). Thanks for your input!

[Beverly]

I actually like this long list - it seems aligned with my reading taste this year.

I also liked that there was a couple I have not heard of but look interesting - one of the joys of a longlist for me.

I have read:
Death Is Hard Work
Disappearing Earth
Golden State
Lost Children Archive
Nickel Boys
The Old Drift
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Patsy
Queenie
Red At The Bone
The Remainder
Tears of the Trufflepig
The Unpassing
We Cast A Shadow
A Woman Is No Man

I DNF:
Fleishman Is in Trouble

I have the following:
Black Leopard, Red Wolf (in progress)
Black Light: Stories
A Cosmology of Monsters
Girl, Woman, Other
Home Remedies
Inland
King of Joy
Let's Tell This Story Properly
Normal People
Nothing to See Here
The Other Americans
Oval
Pigs (in progress)
Same, Same
Saudade
The Water Dancer

and of course, I have a couple on Library Hold

[Sherri]

I’m so happy that Golden State and Nothing to See Here are on the list. I’m kind of surprised not to see Lanny, The Border by Don Winslow, City of Girls, and The Dutch House.

This list really sweeps the globe. There are so many books I’d love to read that my library doesn’t have. I’ve read 8, DNF’d 2, and have been working on The Water Dancer for over a month now. I better speed it up!

[Dianah (onourpath)]

The new Dexter Palmer is fab; not sci-fi-ish at all, just straight up historical fiction. Loved it. Also, Black Light is amazing, and I don't even like short stories.

Thank you, Bob!!!!

[Brenda]

I've read nine of this list and enjoyed Water Dancer, Nickel Boys, Queenie, and Inland over the other 5.

Are there any on the list that you LOVED and have recommended to others?

[Lark]

I've recommended Optic Nerve about a million times. I think I'd add Say Say Say to my list of "books I really enjoyed that not many other people I know have read yet"

[Ruthiella]

Lauren wrote: "This is a great list! While I'm also sad Cantoras isn't on here (likely my favorite book of the year) I'm ok with the fact that I won't have to see it torn apart. ;) "

That is totally the silver lining when your favorite is NOT on the list.

[Michelle]

I'm off to a better start than I have been in previous years. I've read 15 so far, own 5 others and have 3 on hold at the library. So glad We Cast a Shadow and The Other Americans made the list.

[Elizabeth]

Somehow I missed that Nothing to See Here was on the list. I didn't love The Family Fang, so I wasn't expecting to like it much, but it ended up being one of my favorites of the year. So unusual, funny and poignant, a definite 5 star read for me.

[Dianah (onourpath)]

Loved Very Nice by Dermansky. She's in a class by herself when it comes to biting social commentary.

[Dianah (onourpath)]

Night Swimmers by Rock is excellent.

[Jan]

Janet wrote: "Jan wrote: "So I've read 25 and have 6 on my TBR table or in my audiobook queue.

I already mentioned liking Bangkok Wakes to Rain. I also loved Lost Children Archive, The Old Drift, Disappearing ..."

My tastes are pretty mainstream. I'm betting at least half of the shortlist will be stuff I haven't gotten to yet, or heard of. That's half the fun!

[Jan]

Sherri wrote: "I’m so happy that Golden State and Nothing to See Here are on the list. I’m kind of surprised not to see Lanny, The Border by Don Winslow, City of Girls, and The Dutch House. ..."

Sherri, my daughter just started reading Winslow's The Power of the Dog and is loving it. I feel like my work as a mom is done. :-)

[Jan]

Lark wrote: "I've recommended Optic Nerve about a million times. I think I'd add Say Say Say to my list of "books I really enjoyed that not many other people I know have read yet""

Bumping SSS up the list, Lark--thanks! Optic Nerve is already near the top because of your enthusiasm for it. :-)

[Jan]

Dianah wrote: "Loved Very Nice by Dermansky. She's in a class by herself when it comes to biting social commentary."

Duly noted, Dianah. And thanks to all the recs, you guys!!

[Jan]

Bob wrote: "Jan wrote: "Does anyone have a method for balancing the love for new fiction & the TOB with wanting to read backlist stuff too? "

I've taken to buying used as much as possible, then picking blindl..."

Yeah, that's pretty much my method too.

[Jan]

Lauren wrote: "...I need to know which of these books are great or terrible on audio. ..."

Someone already mentioned The Testaments being a bit of a challenge because two of the narrators sounded similar. Patsy and Mostly Dead are fine on audio. Parisian and The Most Fun are very long and skip around so they might not be the best choices. Ocean Vuong reads On Earth and Elizabeth is right about the beautiful language, but his narration adds to the power of his story and his prose.

[C]

With no disrespect to the great and wonderful ToB... here are some other noteworthy books from 2019.  I don't want them to go missed so consider this a place to mention books you would have included.  Note: I haven't read many of these but there are legions of books on my radar that I don't actually get to read.  So maybe they're crap but they SOUND good.. I'm a fan of far more books than I can ever dream of reading.

Aerialists: Stories - Mark Mayer
Akin - Emma Donoghue
All My Goodbyes - Mariana Dimópulos
America Was Hard to Find - Kathleen Alcott
The Atlas of Reds and Blues -  Devi S. Laskar
The Besieged City - Clarice Lispector
Big Sky - Kate Atkinson
Black Card - Chris L. Terry
The Book of Lost Saints - Daniel José Older
The Book of X - Sarah Rose Etter
Boy Swallows Universe - Trent Dalton
BTTM FDRS - Ezra Claytan Daniels, Ben Passmore
Cantoras - Carolina De Robertis
The Cassandra  - Sharma Shields
Chances Are - Richard Russo
Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicombe -  Evan James
The Cheffe: A Cook's Novel - Marie NDiaye
China Dream - Ma Jian
Copperhead - Alexi Zentner
Days By Moonlight - André Alexis
The Dead Astronauts - Jeff Vandermeer
Deep River - Karl Marlantes
The Desert Sky Before Us - Anne Valente
The Divers' Game - Jesse Ball
Dominicana - Angie Cruz
A Door in the Earth - Amy Waldman
Doxology - Nell Zink
Dream Sequence - Adam Foulds
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk
The Dutch House - Ann Patchett
Early Riser - Jasper Fforde
Elsewhere Home - Leila Aboulela
Everything Inside: Stories - Edwidge Danticat
False Bingo - Jac Jemc
Family of Origin - CJ Hauser
Famous Children and Famished Adults: Stories -  Evelyn Hampton
Famous Men Who Never Lived - K. Chess
The Far Field - Madhuri Vijay
The Farm - Joanne Ramos
Feast Your Eyes - Myla Goldberg
First Cosmic Velocity - Zach Powers
FKA USA - Reed King
Friend of My Youth -  Amit Chaudhuri
The Fugitivities - Jesse McCarthy
The Future of Another Timeline - Annalee Newitz
Gingerbread - Helen Oyeyemi
The Gone Dead - Chanelle Benz
Great American Desert: Stories - Terese Svoboda
The Great Eastern - Howard Rodman
Greatest Hits - Laura Barnett
The Gulf - Belle Boggs
Gun Island - Amitav Ghosh
Hard Mouth - Amanda Goldblatt
Hark - Sam Lipsyte
The Heavens - Sandra Newman
House of Stone- Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
The Hundred Wells of Salaga - Ayesha Harruna Attah
If Cats Disappeared From the World - Genki Kawamura
If, Then - Kate Hope Day
Infinite Detail  -Tim Maughan
The Innocents - Michael Crummey
In West Mills -  De'Shawn Charles Winslow
Jacob's Ladder - Ludmila Ulitskaya
The Lager Queen of Minnesota - J. Ryan Stradal
Lanny - Max Porter
Last Day - Domenica Ruta
Last Ones Left Alive - Sarah Davis-Goff
The Lightest Object in the Universe -  Kimi Eisele
The Limits of the World - Jennifer Acker
Look How Happy I'm Making You: Stories - Polly Rosenwaike
Marilou Is Everywhere - Sarah Elaine Smith
The Magnetic Girl - Jessica Handler
Marley - Jon Clinch
Memories of the Future - Siri Hustvedt
The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa
Minutes of Glory: And Other Stories  - Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Mouthful of Birds - Samanta Schweblin
Naamah - Sarah Blake
The Need - Helen Phillips
Night Boat to Tangier - Kevin Barry
Older Brother - Mahir Guven
On the Come Up - Angie Thomas
Orange World and other Stories - Karen Russell
An Orchestra of Minorities -  Chigozie Obioma
Out of Darkness, Shining Light - Petina Gappah
Outside Looking In - T.C. Boyle
The Paper Wasp - Lauren Acampora
A Particular Kind of Black Man - Tope Folarin
A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son -  Sergio Troncoso
A People's History of Heaven - Mathangi Subramanian
A Philosophy of Ruin - Nicholas Mancusi
A Prayer For Travelers - Ruchika Tomar
The Psychology of Time Travel -  Kate Mascarenhas
Quichotte -  Salman Rushdie
The Reign of the Kingfisher -T.J. Martinson
The Revisioners -  Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
Rusty Brown - Chris Ware
The Saturday Night Ghost Club - Craig Davidson
The Shadow King - Maaza Mengiste
Silence is My Mother Tongue -  Sulaiman Addonia
The Silk Road - Kathryn Davis
Sing To It: Stories - Amy Hempel
The Snakes  -Sadie Jones
Speaking of Summer - Kalisha Buckhanon
The Spectators - Jennifer duBois
The Spirit of Science Fiction -  Roberto Bolaño
The Starless Sea -  Erin Morgenstern
Stubborn Archivist - Yara Rodrigues Fowler
Supper Club -  Lara Williams
Talent - Juliet Lapidos
Tiny Americans - Devin Murphy
To Keep the Sun Alive - Rabeah Ghaffari
Tonic and Balm - Stephanie Allen
The Topeka School - Ben Lerner
The Travelers - Regina Porter
Trouble No Man - Brian Hart
Unquiet - Linn Ullmann
Vacuum in the Dark - Jen Beagin
Vincent and Alice and Alice - Shane Jones
Walking on the Ceiling - Aysegül Savas
The Wall - John Lanchester
The Warlow Experiment -  Alix Nathan
The White Book - Han Kang
The Wind That Lays Waste -  Selva Almada
The Window and the Mirror: Book One: Oesteria and the War of Goblinkind - Henry Thomas
Women Talking - Miriam Toews
The World Doesn't Require You: Stories - Rion Amilcar Scott

[C]

C wrote: "With no disrespect to the great and wonderful ToB... here are some other noteworthy books from 2019.  I don't want them to go missed so consider this a place to mention books you would have include..."

OMG I didn't realize how long that was. I guess... it was a great year for books?!?!

[Janet]

C wrote: "C wrote: "With no disrespect to the great and wonderful ToB... here are some other noteworthy books from 2019.  I don't want them to go missed so consider this a place to mention books you would ha..."

Women Talking totally should have made the list. It wasn't a perfect book but the topic alone would have made for great TOB conversation.

[C]

Janet wrote: "C wrote: "C wrote: "With no disrespect to the great and wonderful ToB... here are some other noteworthy books from 2019.  I don't want them to go missed so consider this a place to mention books yo..."

Completely agree with you about Women Talking, Jan. It seemed a given but many books seemed a given.

[Sherri]

Amy wrote: "Any recs for audio?"

I loved the audio for Nothing to See Here.

[Dianah (onourpath)]

C wrote: "With no disrespect to the great and wonderful ToB... here are some other noteworthy books from 2019.  I don't want them to go missed so consider this a place to mention books you would have include..."

Can totally vouch for Akin, Lanny, The Warlow Experiment, Feast Your Eyes, The Starless Sea and Women Talking. All terrific reads. ❤

[Amy]

Lauren - I would be in SO much trouble if my library kept me to 7!! I’m not sure I’ve ever hit a limit on my local one and I know I’ve had more than 30 holds (with as many checked out) and then I glom onto my sister’s King County and Snohomish library passes to get more (and check availability/get backup holds across). Her libraries DO have a limit and now that her kids have figured out how to put all the Captain Underpants books on hold, I’m sometimes out of luck! But I know I’m lucky!

[Amy]

Beth wrote: "I have read 10 on the list and another 10 or so are either already on my tbr list or radar. That leaves 40 some books to investigate! Aside from summer winner Lost Children Archive, does anyone car..."

Shortlist prediction thread is HERE: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
And if you want to join the prediction 'contest' - there's a google doc form to fill out (put your name at the top of the column where indicated) here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

[Irene]

damn, that was the first hour of my work day gone and I haven't even investigated the full list yet. Thanks for all the recommendations!

[Kip]

In about 24 hours I went from learning there was a new Dexter Palmer, to putting the hold on the audiobook last night to downloading the book this morning. A very good day.

[Tim]

Lauren wrote: The authors of Lot and Sabrina & Corina were on the same panel at the Texas Book Festival last month and they are both awesome people. :)

Kali Fajardo-Anstine was at the Portland Book Festival this year on a panel with Kimberly King Parsons, Laurie Halse Anderson, and David Treuer.

Kimberly King Parsons showed up for three talks, in fact - besides that first, she was on a panel with Ryan Chapman (also on the longlist) and later still with Kristen Arnett (on the longlist) and Morgan Parker.

I was at all of Kimberly King Parsons talks, but the best was the one she shared with Ryan Chapman. They were relaxed together, interesting, and funny.

[Jen]

Bob wrote: "I made a google spreadsheet if anyone is interested, like I am, in sorting titles by page count:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/..."

Thank you so much Bob, this is fantastic as always!

[Jen]

I'm feeling excited by this list and overwhelmed by how few I've read (6) - but the good news is that most are available from my library and/or hoopla so access to titles should not be as big an issue this year as it has in the past. Hopefully that's the case for everyone else.

Make way for the library holds!

[Lauren]

Amy wrote: "Lauren - I would be in SO much trouble if my library kept me to 7!! I’m not sure I’ve ever hit a limit on my local one and I know I’ve had more than 30 holds (with as many checked out) and then I g..."

Oh wow, unlimited holds?! I would love that. Seven is tough for sure. The idea was to reduce the hold lines since people would put holds on fewer books, but it has actually increased my wait times, so it's a lose-lose on my end. :( I'm guessing you're in a bigger city (or a state that values libraries more than Texas does). When I read The Library Book I was shocked to learn that librarians in California make $60-200k per year. I was looking at our library job postings and there was a multiple-branch manager position that paid $31k. No cost of living expenses can explain away that difference. :(

[Lauren]

Tim wrote: "Lauren wrote: The authors of Lot and Sabrina & Corina were on the same panel at the Texas Book Festival last month and they are both awesome people. :)

Kali Fajardo-Anstine was at the Portland Boo..."

Nice! I don't know much about those other authors but I'll check them out now.

[Lauren]

Jen wrote: "I'm feeling excited by this list and overwhelmed by how few I've read (6) - but the good news is that most are available from my library and/or hoopla so access to titles should not be as big an is..."

I also read 6 but I hadn't read any from last year's list (my first year following ToB) so I see it as progress. ;) And I checked for all of the titles at my library and found 6 available, and put holds on 7 others. I think there were only about 4 books that my library doesn't have. Not too bad!

[Lauren]

Jan wrote: "Lauren wrote: "...I need to know which of these books are great or terrible on audio. ..."

Someone already mentioned The Testaments being a bit of a challenge because two of the narrators sounded ..."

Good to know - thank you!

[Kip]

I did Nothing to See Here, BLRW, Death is Hard Work, Golden State, Nickel Boys, Exhalation, and Water Dancer all on audio. Enjoyed all of them, BLRW needed a physical copy of the book handy though to clarify names.

The other 6 were all very good, I am not good at deciding if prose would be better read or listened to though, I am just way more audio based at the moment because that's what life allows.

[Ellen]

Thanks, C. My head just exploded.

Seriously, though, some of my favorite books of the year were on your list -- Myla Goldberg's Feast Your Eyes, which I think was her best book so far (and also the book that Daisy Jones & The Six wishes it was), John Lanchester's The Wall, Lanny -- but on the other hand, there's Emma Donaghue's Akin, which really disappointed me.

I have no idea how many holds either of my library systems allow because I've apparently never exceeded the limit -- so I'm guessing there either aren't any or the number's very high. I'm so lucky to have two library systems -- only once in a blue moon does neither have what I'm looking for and then the one that doesn't charge for the service (can you imagine?) will either buy it for me or get it through ILL.

Jan, you are my hero. 25 off the longlist!!! You have the talent for intuiting the minds of the ToB in your reading choices!

[Maggie]

Ok folks. I have come back to goodreads after many years of not using it *at all* because you all convinced me that it would be worth it to have more time talking about ToB. I was soooooo excited about the longlist coming out, and while I have a lot of pretty great readers in my life, I have yet to convert any of them to the full ToB commitment. Alas.

Please note this makes me doubly grateful for all of you.

I’ve read 7. With a couple in that are about to get picked up.

The book I expected to be on the list that I am sad is not is Women Talking

The books I did not expect to be on the list but sort of wish were because I would love to talk about them with you guys are Recursion by Blake Crouch and The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

The book I am most delighted to see on the list is Golden State, which I purchased and read last year (mistaking it for The Golden State). It is fascinating, and I really hope it makes the short list, and I am down to talk about it anytime.

[Maggie]

Also can we talk about the short story collection issue? I’m not sure what to do with them from the ToB perspective. Do they belong?

The pros: I love* short stories. Exhalation is one of the books I bought after reading it from the library, literally because I wanted the privilege of enthusiastically thrusting into the hands of other readers. I want badly to talk about it, and other short story collections, with other readers. There is wonderful work happening in short fiction, and more room for experimentation and risk in some ways.

The cons: In my mind, the short story and the short story collection both belong in separate categories from the novel, and while the judgement in the ToB is always arbitrary, it seems even harder to me when comparing a collection to a novel. Does an uneven collection with one or two stories that move you profoundly and some that don’t work at all beat a pretty good but not great novel? Do all the stories in a collection have to be great, or should a collection make it if just one changes the way you see the world?

[Heather]

Lauren wrote: "This is a great list! While I'm also sad Cantoras isn't on here (likely my favorite book of the year) I'm ok with the fact that I won't have to see it torn apart. ;)

I've read seven already - the..."

I listened to The Most Fun We Ever Had on audio and loved it. I'd be kind of surprised if it made the longlist though; not only is it a very traditional family drama, but it almost skews a little "chick lit"--which I love, personally, but feels like not a shortlist book.

[Jan]

Amy wrote: "I believe this is officially my least number of longlist books read in advance since I started following the tourney. (sigh)"

So sad when real life gets in the way of reading! ;-)

[Karissa]

Ellen wrote: "Happy Birthday, Karissa!..."

Thank you, Ellen!

I figured I would expand on my last post and list the books I've read and brief thoughts on the books that we didn't read with Camp TOB over the summer (also I counted wrong, I've read 10 not 11):

1) Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
2) Death Is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa - The juxtaposition of the beautiful writing and the ugly subject matter in this book creates a striking image. Fear and death are rampant, but there were still moments of beauty such as a late-in-life love story of two widows.
3) Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips - One of my favorites! It has what I enjoy in a book: beautiful writing, a look into other cultures, and stirring emotional connection.
4) Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Akner - I enjoyed the humor and exploration of gender, relationships, and parenthood in this one, but found the jumps to the narrator too jarring at times. I also felt the book was longer than it needed to be as some of the ideas were repeated too much.
5) Home Remedies by Xuan Juliana Wang - Wang's writing style created really beautiful one-liners, but the only story that really stuck out to me was "Vaulting the Sea" about a young man part of a successful synchronized diving duo coming to terms with his feelings for his partner in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics.
6) Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
7) The Testaments by Margaret Atwood - A really enjoyable read for fans of the TV show, but I didn't think the writing quality was showstopping like in The Handmaid's Tale.
8) Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
9) The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates - A beautifully told story. I loved that he connected the magical realism elements of the story to the characters' memories.
10) When All Is Said by Anne Griffin - Wow did the ending hit me with all the feels, and was so well done! The audiobook narration by Niall Buggy was perfect.

[Amanda]

magwi wrote: "Also can we talk about the short story collection issue? I’m not sure what to do with them from the ToB perspective. Do they belong?

The pros: I love* short stories. Exhalation is one of the book..."

I am honestly surprised to see so many short story collections on the longlist. I don't mind them in theory, but I don't see them as being great candidates for the tournament. I can't recall any collection where all the stories are great. There is always one dud in the bunch. Some collections are just that a collection with no overall theme binding them together. Personally, I find that I can overlook the smaller faults in a novel easier than I could a story collection. With a novel, it is easier to lay out what the author intended and whether or not it succeeded.

Also, while I did enjoy Disappearing Earth, I was a little bothered that over half the book had been previously published over the years. I haven't looked too closely at the other collections on this list yet, but when over 50% of the book has been published before 2019, is it really one of the best books of the year?

[Jan]

Ellen wrote: "...Jan, you are my hero. 25 off the longlist!!! You have the talent for intuiting the minds of the ToB in your reading choices!..."

Aw shucks, thanks, Ellen! I've also read 24 off of C's wonderful list. I think I simply read (paper and audio) so much new fiction that there's bound to be a fair amount of overlap.

[Karissa]

The books I read that I think deserved to have been included on the list were Lie With Me by Philippe Besson and translated by Molly Ringwald, Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell, and Girl by Edna O'Brien.

The books on the list that I haven't read, but either own or already have checked out from the library so will be reading soon are:

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum

[Jan]

Heather wrote: "...I listened to The Most Fun We Ever Had on audio and loved it. I'd be kind of surprised if it made the longlist though; not only is it a very traditional family drama, but it almost skews a little "chick lit"--which I love, personally, but feels like not a shortlist book...."

Everything you said, Heather, except I read the paper version. I found it a fun, satisfying read but not likely shortlist fodder, and a bit surprising for the longlist.

[Amy]

Lauren wrote: "Amy wrote: "Lauren - I would be in SO much trouble if my library kept me to 7!! I’m not sure I’ve ever hit a limit on my local one and I know I’ve had more than 30 holds (with as many checked out) ..."

Our library system here has a pretty high circulation (and support from county bonds) but my neighborhood one is in the city of Portland yet receives no city money (it's in the wrong county compared to the other Portland city libraries) and is sustained in large part by volunteering and donations. They were actually just able to expand into a community center space (hugs!)!

[Amy]

Amanda wrote: "magwi wrote: "Also can we talk about the short story collection issue? I’m not sure what to do with them from the ToB perspective. Do they belong?

The pros: I love* short stories. Exhalation is o..."

I think I loved EVERY story in American Housewife and Bobcat and Other Stories and nearly every story in What is Not Yours Is Not Yours.

They never seem to make it to the shortlist though unless you want to count 'connected stories' like Goon Squad or The Tsar of Love and Techno. Perhaps this is the year for connected-in-theme if not in narrative?