The six shortlisted Novels:
NoViolet Bulawayo, “Glory”
Percival Everett, “The Trees”
Alan Garner, “Treacle Walker”
Shehan Karunatilaka, “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida”
Claire Keegan, “Small Things Like These”
Elizabeth Strout, “Oh William!”
This year’s shortlisted novels, announced at a news conference on Tuesday, 6 September 2022; included authors from five countries and four continents, and encompassed a diverse range of prose styles and subject matters, from quiet, introspective literary fiction to fantasy and magical realism.
Several of the novels recognized by judges this year deploy humor, myth and allegory to tackle painful chapters of history. In her novel “Glory,” the Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo obliquely tackles the downfall of the autocrat Robert Mugabe, through a narrative featuring a cast of animals — horses, donkeys, dogs, goats, chickens and a crocodile.
“The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida,” a mythic story by the Sri Lankan novelist Shehan Karunatilaka, follows a photographer who wakes up dead, in an underworld where he encounters victims of political violence. And in his novel “The Trees,” Percival Everett lampoons the stain of racism in America, with a story about a pair of Black detectives who investigate a series of murders that echo the lynching of Emmett Till.
“One of the great powers of language is to make you laugh, even in the middle of terrible things,” Neil MacGregor, the former director of the British Museum and the chair of this year’s judges, said during a news conference on Tuesday.
The other authors on the shortlist are the Irish writer Claire Keegan, for “Small Things Like These,” a slim novel about the unmarried women and their children who suffered in Ireland’s Magdalene laundries; the English fantasy writer Alan Garner, for “Treacle Walker,” a dreamlike story about a boy who has magical visions; and the American novelist Elizabeth Strout for “Oh William!,” about a grieving woman who helps her ex-husband investigate his troubled family history.
The Winner will be announced on 17 October 2022.
NoViolet Bulawayo, “Glory”
Percival Everett, “The Trees”
Alan Garner, “Treacle Walker”
Shehan Karunatilaka, “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida”
Claire Keegan, “Small Things Like These”
Elizabeth Strout, “Oh William!”
This year’s shortlisted novels, announced at a news conference on Tuesday, 6 September 2022; included authors from five countries and four continents, and encompassed a diverse range of prose styles and subject matters, from quiet, introspective literary fiction to fantasy and magical realism.
Several of the novels recognized by judges this year deploy humor, myth and allegory to tackle painful chapters of history. In her novel “Glory,” the Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo obliquely tackles the downfall of the autocrat Robert Mugabe, through a narrative featuring a cast of animals — horses, donkeys, dogs, goats, chickens and a crocodile.
“The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida,” a mythic story by the Sri Lankan novelist Shehan Karunatilaka, follows a photographer who wakes up dead, in an underworld where he encounters victims of political violence. And in his novel “The Trees,” Percival Everett lampoons the stain of racism in America, with a story about a pair of Black detectives who investigate a series of murders that echo the lynching of Emmett Till.
“One of the great powers of language is to make you laugh, even in the middle of terrible things,” Neil MacGregor, the former director of the British Museum and the chair of this year’s judges, said during a news conference on Tuesday.
The other authors on the shortlist are the Irish writer Claire Keegan, for “Small Things Like These,” a slim novel about the unmarried women and their children who suffered in Ireland’s Magdalene laundries; the English fantasy writer Alan Garner, for “Treacle Walker,” a dreamlike story about a boy who has magical visions; and the American novelist Elizabeth Strout for “Oh William!,” about a grieving woman who helps her ex-husband investigate his troubled family history.
The Winner will be announced on 17 October 2022.
'I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.'
Jorge Luis Borges