Booker Prize 2023 longlist announced

The longlist for the 2023 Booker Prize has been announced.

The 13 books longlisted for the £50,000 (A$96,700) prize are:

• A Spell of Good Things (Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Canongate)
• Old God’s Time (Sebastian Barry, Faber)
• Study for Obedience (Sarah Bernstein, Granta)
• If I Survive You (Jonathan Escoffery, Fourth Estate)
• How to Build a Boat (Elaine Feeney, Harvill Secker)
• This Other Eden (Paul Harding, Hutchinson Heinemann)
• Pearl (Siân Hughes, The Indigo Press)
• All the Little Bird-Hearts (Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow, Headline)
• Prophet Song (Paul Lynch, Oneworld)
• In Ascension (Martin MacInnes, Atlantic)
• Western Lane (Chetna Maroo, Picador)
• The Bee Sting (Paul Murray, Hamish Hamilton)
• The House of Doors (Tan Twan Eng, Canongate).

Chosen from 163 entries, the longlist features authors from Scotland, England, Ireland, Canada, America, Nigeria and Malaysia. Ireland is the most represented country on the list, with four authors nominated: Sebastian Barry, Elaine Feeney, Paul Lynch and Paul Murray.

‘The list is defined by its freshness—by the irreverence of new voices, by the iconoclasm of established ones,’ said chair of judges Esi Edugyan. ‘All thirteen novels cast new light on what it means to exist in our time, and they do so in original and thrilling ways. Their range is vast, both in subject and form: they shocked us, made us laugh, filled us with anguish, but above all they stayed with us. This is a list to excite, challenge, delight, a list to bring wonder.’

The six-book shortlist will be announced on 21 September, before the winner is announced on 26 November. For more information on this year’s longlist, see the Booker website.

Category: Awards International news