The Booker Prize Shortlist 2022

The Booker Prize Shortlist 2022

 

 

The Booker Prize 2022 shortlist has been announced!

The shortlist includes the shortest book and oldest author ever to be nominated, three second novels, authors from five countries and four continents, three independent publishers and several titles inspired by real events.

 

The winner will be announced at the Roundhouse in London on October 17.

 

The Shortlist

Glory

Small Things Like These

Treacle Walker

The Trees

 

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Oh William!

Highlights from this year’s shortlist

  • The six books are ‘set in different places at different times [and] are all about events that in some measure happen everywhere, and concern us all’, according to Chair of judges Neil MacGregor
  • The six authors represent five different nationalities and four continents, with an equal split of men and women on the list
  • The majority of the shortlist is inspired by real events, from the Sri Lankan civil war and the fall of Robert Mugabe to Ireland’s Magdalene laundries scandal and the murder of Emmett Till in the US
  • It features the oldest author ever to be shortlisted: Alan Garner will celebrate his 88th birthday on the night of the winner ceremony
  • At 116 pages, Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These is the shortest book recognised in the prize’s history – although Alan Garner’s Treacle Walker contains fewer words
  • Half of the list is published by independent publishers, including first time appearances from Influx Press and Sort of Books

Cultural historian, writer and broadcaster Neil MacGregor chairs the panel and is joined by academic and broadcaster Shahidha Bari; historian Helen Castor; novelist and critic M. John Harrison; and novelist, poet and professor Alain Mabanckou.