The Booker Prize Longlist will be announced next week. It is always difficult to predict which novels will make the cut. Sometimes there will be obvious contenders, but the Booker always throws in some surprises.
To be eligible, the novel has to have been written in English and published in UK/Ireland between 1 October 2023 and 30 September 2024. While I am not across when novels were published in UK/Ireland, I am going to take a guess at who might appear on the longlist.
My predictions are:
- Kaveh Akbar - Martyr!
- Percival Everett - James
- Samantha Harvey - Orbital
- Hisham Matar - My Friends
- Claire Messud - This Strange Eventful History
- Alan Murrin - The Coast Road
- Chigozie Obioma - The Road to the Country
- Andrew O'Hagan - Caledonian Road
- Elif Shafak - There are Rivers in the Sky
- Joelle Taylor - The Night Alphabet
- Colm Tóibín - Long Island
- Alexis Wright - Praiseworthy
At this stage I have only read Everett and Toibin, but I am keen to read several others.
The longlist will be announced on 30 July, followed by the shortlist on 16 September and the winner announcement in 12 November.