PJE's Booker Blog

2018 Man Booker Prize Shortlist

The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize always seems like a bit of an anticlimax now that the longlist is revealed two months earlier, stealing all the excitement. But, for the record, here is the 2018 shortlist:

"All of our six finalists are miracles of stylistic invention. In each of them the language takes centre stage," said Kwame Anthony Appiah, this year's chair of the judges. "And, as is traditional, we have dropped the favourites," he didn't go on to say.

With the omission of Michael Ondaatje, there are no previous winners on the list, so there will be a 'new name on the trophy'. Esi Edugyan is the only author to have even been shortlisted before (for Half Blood Blues in 2011). And at the age of 27, Daisy Johnson has become the youngest person to be shortlisted (and the first to be born in the 1990's).

The winner will be announced at The Guildhall, London, on Tuesday 16th October. Let's hope there's not too much booing and food-throwing if an American wins for the third year in a row, just four years after they became eligible. The night before BBC4 will broadcast a documentary entitled "Barneys, Books and Bust Ups: 50 Years of the Booker Prize" which is described as "a tale of bruised egos and bickering judges".

posted by PJE @ 2:55 PM