The thirteen books on the 2022 Booker Prize Longlist were announced today! Even though lately I have not followed the prize as much as I used to, I still get excited to see the list and think of the potentially great reading experiences in store — not to mention the fun conversations! If you’re interested, The MOokse and the Gripes Goodreads Group is extremely active (the speculation thread had 1850 comments), and there are threads for discussing the longlist in general a well as each of the longlisted books. The shortlist will be announced on September 6, and the winner will be announced on October 17.
The Booker Prize website has some interesting facts about the list. For example, three of the books on the list are debut novels, including Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley — who is just 19 years old! On the other end of the spectrum, Alan Garner is on the list with Treacle Walker, and he is 88.
Here are the books:
The Colony
by Audrey Magee
After Sappho
by Selby Wynn Schwartz
Glory
by NoViolet Bulawayo
Small Things Like These
by Claire Keegan
Nightcrawling
by Leila Mottley
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies
by Maddie Mortimer
Case Study
by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Treacle Walker
by Alan Garner
The Trees
by Percival Everett
Trust
by Hernan Diaz
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
by Shehan Karunatilaka
Oh William!
by Elizabeth Strout
Booth
by Karen Joy Fowler
Great list, always exciting as you say.
I’ve already read “Small Things Like These” and “Oh William!” Would read the latter again, this author has such depth.
“Treacle Walker” is on my list to get out of the library. Because it opens with a quote from the Italian Carlo Rovelli, “time is ignorance…”
In an interview with The Guardian”, AG explains that “Rovelli was putting into scientific terms what I have known all my life. It’s a child’s view….”
AG goes on to say that he has been looking [with his friend Bob Gywinski, a particle physicist] at “whether it is theoretically possible for time to run backwards”. Now,doesn’t that whet your appetite!