2023 Booker Prize speculation Showing 1,301-1,350 of 1,356

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Sag more Derek on where it is going. I am struggling for a unifying theme currently.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Say not sag!!

[Ben]

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "Ben - think if it though. As it stands you would normally open all your presents between 9am and 901 am. This is spreading it out over hours with half of the presents still to come."

Haha okay fine you've convinced me.

[David]

Other than the Guardian leak, usually we're lucky if we get one, maybe two. I remember Mohamed keying in on Elena Knows last year after the website for an Argentinian newspaper jumped the gun by a few hours.

[Emmeline]

And you can all get your library holds in before the rush!

[Cindy]

Derek wrote: "Ahh, so some rumoured diversity: Tan Twan Eng"

First of Derek's rumors that is not a surprise to me.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Derek wrote: "I’m going to be very disappointed if Zadie doesn’t make the long list."

Any indication on that? I feel it hinges on whether the Chair hates the way she write the book she had intended to write herself or loves it.

[David]

So far, only the Feeney had been off the radar. The surprise may be more about what's left off than what's included.

[But_i_thought_]

The theme so far seems to be established and acclaimed authors, rather than new names or debuts.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I agree David. All of the others were definite possibilities.

[Cindy]

David wrote: "So far, only the Feeney had been off the radar. The surprise may be more about what's left off than what's included."

What Feeney David? Did I miss one of the rumors?

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Derek said unnamed Irish slam post - I did a bit if thinking and suggested How To Build a Boat by Eliane Feeney and Derek was able to confirm.

[David]

This is what I have so far. I realize not all of these are confirmed:

Old God's Time - Sebastian Barry
Study for Obedience - Sarah Bernstein
How to Build a Boat - Elaine Feeney
This Other Eden - Paul Harding
In Ascension - Martin MacInnes
The Bee Sting - Paul Murray
The House of Doors - Tan Twan Eng

The Feeney is conjectural. The Bernstein is unconfirmed.

[Cindy]

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "Derek said unnamed Irish slam post - I did a bit if thinking and suggested How To Build a Boat by Eliane Feeney and Derek was able to confirm."

Ah yes, I did note that. Thank you!

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I think the Taylor should be off - there are lots of short story collections.

[David]

But_i_thought_ wrote: "The theme so far seems to be established and acclaimed authors, rather than new names or debuts."

I agree. This is actually more of a traditional Booker list than what we've seen the last few years.

[Paula]

What do we think about the possibility of both Rushdie and Rachel Eliza Griffiths being on the list? Haven't read either, just think that Booker usually looooves a headline like that - a husband and wife duo on the longlist! That would certainly attract attention. But I would hope that they choose their 13 based on merit and not just for headlines.

[Cindy]

Derek, there is definitely diversity there.

[David]

I would say Griffiths is more likely than Rusdhie right now, if these rumors are true.

Griffiths is a poet. Is she a slam poet?

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

She’s not Irish.

[Alwynne]

Paula wrote: "What do we think about the possibility of both Rushdie and Rachel Eliza Griffiths being on the list? Haven't read either, just think that Booker usually looooves a headline like that - a husband an..."

Her novel does sound interesting, although I find the fact that she would elect to marry an aging roué like Rushdie more than a little off-putting. Hard not to wonder why.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Derek wrote: "Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀"

For me a theme is authors already featured

That’s Eng, Adebayo, Barry all I think shortlisted. Murray longlisted.

[Ruben]

I listened to Stay With Me on audible and I think it was Adjoa Andoh who narrated it ...

[Paula]

I'm struggling to believe that all of these leaks are true. Some, yes, but all of them put together just seem like a really odd longlist. Especially after what the judges said in their recent interviews, I expected something quite different.

[David]

What were you expecting, Paula?

[Laura]

I think there have been stranger longlists— no graphic novels or pulpy thrillers (yet)!

[David]

Laura wrote: "I think there have been stranger longlists— no graphic novels or pulpy thrillers (yet)!"

Agreed. This is a quite traditional longlist, if confirmed.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I am but finding it that odd at all but Derek don’t start doubting it now

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

That would be weird.

Which ones are you most certain of Derek?

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Feeney, Barry and Murray.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I am not sure Andoh did narrate A Spell of Good Things. That’s nut who is on Audible.

Hoping she is in the longlist though as would mean a Norfolk author.

[Nicholas]

I just had to email a colleague: "OMG so the booker prize longlist comes out at 3am tmrw but all these rumors started leaking so now i cannot focus on anything else." Fortunately it is almost the end of the workday here in NYC...

[David]

It looks like Andoh narrated the audible for Ayọ̀bámi's previous book, Stay With Me.

[David]

Andoh also narrated Matrix fwiw.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I get it now sorry I think I caused the confusion.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I am sure somewhere on this thread we listed the authors Andoh had done audiobooks for who could be contenders but I can’t find it.

[David]

Good call on the Escoffery, Ben.

[Cindy]

Derek wrote: "Okay my final bit of rumours is that the short story collection is If I Survive You"

Thank you so much for sharing all of this with us Derek!

[WndyJW]

I did not read enough eligible books this year to have any good guesses. The books I did read that I think will be on the list are Cuddy, Hungry Ghosts, and Victory City (maybe, I can’t compare it to any possibly more deserving books,) which I think will at least get longlisted for obvious reasons, and maybe Riambel, which was beautiful and spare, but maybe too spare for the Booker.

I think Losing the Plot should make it all the way to the shortlist and would be a deserving winner, and I assume the same for Corey Fah, but I haven’t yet read Corey Fah. Sadly, I don’t expect to see Losing the Plot or Corey Fah because they are brilliant, artistic, sui generis novels and the Booker hasn’t been looking for brilliant, artistic, sui generis novels, they look for smart, readable books. Milkman’s win does give me some hope for Derek Owusu and Isabel Waidner though.

[WndyJW]

I just realized I missed all the rumors before my last post. It does make it exciting to get these rumors!

I know that I am not alone in saying that regardless of what kind of compromises the judges came to in creating their list Hungry Ghost and Losing the Plot are two of the most moving and beautifully written novels of the last several Booker seasons and both will be read for years to come.

[switterbug (Betsey)]

Derek wrote: "I’m starting the Harding today."

Harding rocks!

[Dylan]

Just got back from work to several pages of new comments (!!!) and it's very exciting!

[WndyJW]

Go back 100 comment, Dylan, there’s some good stuff!

[Dylan]

WndyJW wrote: "Go back 100 comment, Dylan, there’s some good stuff!"

I did - I read through every comment! If the rumours are accurate, this list is very different from any predictions I came across.

[Paul]

So far none of the books I was hoping to see (I had 18 on my wish list / predictions early on the thread), and some of which I thought had very high chances. So hoping the speculation is wrong but I strongly suspect it isn’t. Come back Dame Stella. Unless of course the other half of the list contains some of them.

Ones I was hoping / expecting to see would include Corey Fah; The Long Form; Grimmish; The Way the Day Breaks; End of Nightwork; August Blue; Losing the Plot; Hungry Ghosts; Cuddy; Quinn; Where I End; Sleeping Car Porter; Book of X.

[Hugh, Active moderator]

4.5 hours without a comment after all that excitement- isn't the calm supposed to come before the storm? Thanks for all the tips and entertainment - at least I have a few names and links in my spreadsheet. If I missed anything that required moderation, I apologise.

My comment about creating threads probably got buried in the avalanche, but it is quite likely that creating the book threads will get held up by the dreaded captchas, the fact that I'll be on the move at 9 a.m. and the "new" book page which takes longer to load and makes it harder to see edition info.

[Ruben]

Don't worry Hugh, there is no hurry and it's great you always do this so fast.

Looking again at the list: Eng, Murray, Barry, Adebayo, Escoffery...all relatively well-known authors/titles that I had heard of and even added to my TBR, but that I wasn't super excited to get to (and so in all likelihood would never have read if they hadn't been longlisted...)

But happy to give them a try now and surely there will be some positive surprises!

[BookerMT2]

Pretty sure publishers are given a heads up regarding both longlist and shortlist to ensure stock is either in or in reprint?

[Mohamed]

I could not finish the Escoffery at all. It was dreadful with nothing special

[Mohamed]

An did not have any sleep for sure (slept only three hours)