Overwhelmed by the choices on the 2023 Booker Prize shortlist? Wondering what they are all about? Never fear — Kate has compiled a comprehensive rundown of the shortlisted titles, and we hope that her recommendations might give you a hand in the lead-up to Christmas. Scroll down to find out more, and read Kate’s detailed reviews on her Substack here.
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Summed up in a line:
A tragicomic multi-perspective Irish family drama.
Vibe of the thing:
A good meaty novel you can sink into. Satirical but also sincere. High drama, high comedy, high thrills.
Recommended for:
Franzen fans; anyone critical of late-Capitalism; those willing to invest a couple of weekends on a fairly long novel; anyone who wants to know what all the buzz is about.
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
Summed up in a line:
A beautiful and painful parable about a mixed-race community who live as outcasts on an island.
Vibe of the thing:
Has an almost biblical feel, but tells a truly human and heartbreaking tale filled with complicated morality.
Recommended for:
Those who can tolerate just a smidge of whimsy; readers interested in creative literary perspectives of prejudice; those in possession a lonely or poetical heart.
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
Summed up in a line:
Unflinching vision of a totalitarian dystopian nightmare set in modern Ireland.
Vibe of the thing:
Like Orwell’s 1984 but more realistic and relatable, and therefore more terrifying.
Recommended for:
Fans of dystopian fiction a la Margaret Atwood; masochists; readers who want to be confronted by their own complacency; if you’re in despair about the state of the world and want to stay that way.
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
Summed up in a line:
A strange woman goes to live with her strange brother in a strange village.
Vibe of the thing:
Eccentric, ornate, occult and philosophical.
Recommended for:
Thoughtful loners; readers with good concentration for long sentences; superstitious types; repressed feminists.
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
Summed up in a line:
Interconnected short stories about a Jamaican family wresting with the nuances of their identity and place in the world, or at least in Miami.
Vibe of the thing:
Genre-bending, language-blending, convention-offending, heart-rending.
Recommended for:
Fans of Junot Diaz; readers who read the first novels of writers with MFAs; short story lovers; anyone who knows things aren’t ever black or white and want to sit in the grey.
Western Lane by Chetna Maroo
Summed up in a line:
A coming-of-age story about grief, family and how to become really good at squash.
Vibe of the thing:
Honest, touching, transcendent and sad – what happens on the squash court doesn’t really stay on the squash court.
Recommended for:
Those in the mood for something poignant but not too heavy; squash players of all levels; anyone who has lost someone and is looking for a way forward; readers of new fiction.
Rumoured to win: The Bee Sting
Who I think might actually win: If I Survive You
Who I’d like to see win: This Other Eden
Chance of a man named Paul winning: 50%
Chance of a woman winning: 33%
Chance of me predicting the winner: 0%