Six of the best on Booker shortlist
Looking for reading inspiration? Try these six books on the 2020 Booker Prize shortlist.
The shortlist is: The New Wilderness by Diane Cook,
This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga, Burnt Sugar by
Avni Doshi, The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart and Real Life by Brandon Taylor.
The Booker Prize is the leading literary award in the English speaking world. It has brought recognition, reward and readership to what the judges regard as outstanding fiction for over five decades now.
This year's list was chosen from 162 submitted books.
Each year, the prize is awarded to what is, in the opinion of the judges, the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK and Ireland. It is a prize that usually transforms the winner’s career.
The winner is given £50,000, and each shortlisted author receives £2,500. Both the winner and the shortlisted authors can expect an increase in book sales.
Early on in the pandemic lockdown a spokesperson for the Booker explained: " We can’t go to an art gallery or to the theatre. We can’t hear live music or sit in a cinema. We can’t congregate, for any reason, for a while.
"One thing we can still do is read."
The award ceremony on 17 November when the winner will be announced, will be open to everyone online and on BBC Two and BBC Radio 4.
Front Row on Radio 4 will run a Book Group this month with the six shortlisted authors, so you have time to read them all and join the virtual group to discuss them.
Last year's prize for fiction was won jointly by Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo. Evaristo was one of the participants at the 2020 Edinburgh International Book Festival when she was in conversation with First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
These recorded events are still online for you to enjoy.
thebookerprizes.com