Download Prospect's Summer Fiction Special
This year's Man Booker Prize shortlist has been announced and a few big names have been left behind from the longlist: most notably, Marilynne Robinson for Lila, Andrew O'Hagan for The Illuminations and former winner Anne Enright for The Green Road. But although some of the authors might be less familiar, there is plenty that is interesting about the six books competing for the £50,000 prize. Here's Prospect's guide to the shortlist and who might eventually win.
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James Oneworld, £18.99
Marlon James is the award-winning author of three novels. A Brief History of Seven Killings begins in Jamaica in 1976, and follows the real-life plot to assassinate Bob Marley. Marley survives but the seven would-be assassins are less lucky: they all end up being killed themselves (the seven fatalities of the title.) Though based on a true story, James's novel uses reality as a springboard to create a semi-mythical world of gangsters, drug-dealers, conmen, beauty queens and CIA agents. Compared by one reviewer to James Ellroy's novels about the corrupt underbelly of America, James's novel is a complex work written from multiple perspectives. Unlikely to win but stranger things have happened.
Satin Island by Tom McCarthyJonathan Cape, £16.99
The British writer Tom McCarthy is arguably our leading experimental novelist. His debut Remainder was a cult hit and his later work C was shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2010. Last year, he wrote a much-discussed attack on literary "realism" in the London Review of Books. As you might expect, Satin Island is unconventional. It follows a character called "U," a so-called "corporate anthropologist" working for a consultancy in London. He is commissioned to write a report summing up our age but gets distracted and starts to think there is a secret logic holding together the images he sees. McCarthy manages to be both radical and popular at the same time. The Booker tends to be a conservative prize, though, and it would be surprising if he landed it.
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma ONE, Pushkin Press, £14.99
Set in Nigeria in the 1990s, The Fishermen follows four brothers whose lives are disturbed when a local mystic prophesises that one of them will kill another. Drawing on African mythology as well as contemporary realism, this novel is very much in the tradition of fellow Nigerian writers Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka. Chigozie Obioma, at 28-years-old, is the youngest writer on the shortlist and The Fishermen is also his first novel. But the triumph of Eleanor Catton in 2013 at the same age shows that youth need not be a barrier to victory.
The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev SahotaPicador, £9.99
Sunjeev Sahota, chosen as one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists in 2013, has written a "brilliant political novel" (Guardian) about the lives of migrant workers in Sheffield. The book alternates between their struggles in their new country and the places they have left behind. Lauded by Salman Rushdie, this topical and finely written work has momentum behind it. Don't be surprised if it triumphs.
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne TylerChatto & Windus, £18.99
Seventy-three year old Anne Tyler has written many wonderful novels about family life set in her home city of Baltimore. A Spool of Blue Thread is a stylish saga focusing on the Whitshanks, Baltimore builders for three generations. As usual with Tyler, what looks like a simple tale is considerably more artful. As Prospect reviewer Anthony Cummins writes: "Tyler withholds secrets about the biological parentage of two characters and boldly kills off the one who most holds our attention with half the novel remaining." It would be a fitting climax to a wonderful career if this geneous novel were to carry home the Booker.
A Little Life by Hanya YanagiharaPicador, £16.99
American Hanya Yanagihara’s second novel is a 700-page epic about the disturbing effects of childhood sexual abuse on its protagonist Jude. Hailed as heartbreaking and profoundly moving, Yanagihara said she wrote this in a "fevered" state. This book has clearely struck a chord with many readers, although some reviewers have complained about its length and relentless tone. At the moment, it is being tipped as the favourite.
The winner will be announced on Tuesday 13th October
This year's Man Booker Prize shortlist has been announced and a few big names have been left behind from the longlist: most notably, Marilynne Robinson for Lila, Andrew O'Hagan for The Illuminations and former winner Anne Enright for The Green Road. But although some of the authors might be less familiar, there is plenty that is interesting about the six books competing for the £50,000 prize. Here's Prospect's guide to the shortlist and who might eventually win.
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James Oneworld, £18.99
Marlon James is the award-winning author of three novels. A Brief History of Seven Killings begins in Jamaica in 1976, and follows the real-life plot to assassinate Bob Marley. Marley survives but the seven would-be assassins are less lucky: they all end up being killed themselves (the seven fatalities of the title.) Though based on a true story, James's novel uses reality as a springboard to create a semi-mythical world of gangsters, drug-dealers, conmen, beauty queens and CIA agents. Compared by one reviewer to James Ellroy's novels about the corrupt underbelly of America, James's novel is a complex work written from multiple perspectives. Unlikely to win but stranger things have happened.
Satin Island by Tom McCarthyJonathan Cape, £16.99
The British writer Tom McCarthy is arguably our leading experimental novelist. His debut Remainder was a cult hit and his later work C was shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2010. Last year, he wrote a much-discussed attack on literary "realism" in the London Review of Books. As you might expect, Satin Island is unconventional. It follows a character called "U," a so-called "corporate anthropologist" working for a consultancy in London. He is commissioned to write a report summing up our age but gets distracted and starts to think there is a secret logic holding together the images he sees. McCarthy manages to be both radical and popular at the same time. The Booker tends to be a conservative prize, though, and it would be surprising if he landed it.
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma ONE, Pushkin Press, £14.99
Set in Nigeria in the 1990s, The Fishermen follows four brothers whose lives are disturbed when a local mystic prophesises that one of them will kill another. Drawing on African mythology as well as contemporary realism, this novel is very much in the tradition of fellow Nigerian writers Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka. Chigozie Obioma, at 28-years-old, is the youngest writer on the shortlist and The Fishermen is also his first novel. But the triumph of Eleanor Catton in 2013 at the same age shows that youth need not be a barrier to victory.
The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev SahotaPicador, £9.99
Sunjeev Sahota, chosen as one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists in 2013, has written a "brilliant political novel" (Guardian) about the lives of migrant workers in Sheffield. The book alternates between their struggles in their new country and the places they have left behind. Lauded by Salman Rushdie, this topical and finely written work has momentum behind it. Don't be surprised if it triumphs.
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne TylerChatto & Windus, £18.99
Seventy-three year old Anne Tyler has written many wonderful novels about family life set in her home city of Baltimore. A Spool of Blue Thread is a stylish saga focusing on the Whitshanks, Baltimore builders for three generations. As usual with Tyler, what looks like a simple tale is considerably more artful. As Prospect reviewer Anthony Cummins writes: "Tyler withholds secrets about the biological parentage of two characters and boldly kills off the one who most holds our attention with half the novel remaining." It would be a fitting climax to a wonderful career if this geneous novel were to carry home the Booker.
A Little Life by Hanya YanagiharaPicador, £16.99
American Hanya Yanagihara’s second novel is a 700-page epic about the disturbing effects of childhood sexual abuse on its protagonist Jude. Hailed as heartbreaking and profoundly moving, Yanagihara said she wrote this in a "fevered" state. This book has clearely struck a chord with many readers, although some reviewers have complained about its length and relentless tone. At the moment, it is being tipped as the favourite.
The winner will be announced on Tuesday 13th October
