This year’s Man Booker longlist is a good one, I think. Lots of variety; big names and small ones; and an impressive geographical spread. Leans towards the experimental – and no harm in that.
I’m pleased/relieved to say that The Spectator reviewed all but three of these books when they came out (Kamila Shamsie is forthcoming) – so I’m posting links here where appropriate. We liked almost all we reviewed, though a minority report was posted on Sebastian Barry and our Caroline Moore was cooler on Arundhati Roy than others have been. Apologies to Mozley, Fridlund and McCormack. It’s a numbers game…
4321 by Paul Auster (Faber & Faber)
Days Without End by Sebastian Barry (Faber & Faber)
History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Orion Books)
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
Solar Bones by Mike McCormack (Canongate)
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (4th Estate, HarperCollins)
Elmet by Fiona Mozley (JM Originals, John Murray)
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (Bloomsbury)
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (Bloomsbury)
Autumn by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
Swing Time by Zadie Smith (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Fleet, Little, Brown)
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