Source: granta.com
I bet you’re wondering who made the cut? Maybe you’re not; maybe you actually have a life or something. I was, personally, quite excited because David Szalay (a very unassuming young man that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting) made it. Aside from him and a few others (Zadie Smith – AGAIN! – maybe it’s about time I dusted off one of her books and actually read them instead of assuming I’ll hate them), my reaction to this list was ‘eh?’ I, genuinely, have no idea who some of these people are, and I have only read books by three writers on this list (Szalay, Benjamin Markovits and Xiaolu Guo). Here’s the list in all its glory….your thoughts??
Adam Foulds
Evie Wyld
Adam Thirlwell
Zadie Smith
Naomi Alderman
Sarah Hall
Steven Hall
Ross Raisin
Sunjeev Sahota
Xiaolu Guo
Kamila Shamsie
Ned Beauman
Tahmima Anam
Nadifa Mohamed
Taiye Selasi
Joanna Kavenna
Benjamin Markovits
Jenni Fagan
Helen Oyeyemi
Most of the commentary since the announcement earlier this evening has been on how diverse the list is, and that, I think is great. To define Britishness is so very difficult these days so I think this list reflects that. Here is an interesting article written by a member of the judging panel, explaining their year-long selection process. Maybe it’s not so bad that I don’t know the majority of the featured novelists, maybe that’s the whole point. When the next list comes out in 2023, I’ll have discovered these writers and they may have earned a space or two on my overcrowded bookshelf.
Zadie Smith, seriously? BAH. Why! I just don’t understand her allure.
I’ve never read her books…mostly because of comments like yours. Everybody always has something negative to say about her so I’ve been completely put off.
same with me hahah i don’t know about this book 😉