• The Hub

    News, Notes, Talk

    Here’s the shortlist for the 2022 Booker Prize.

    Corinne Segal

    September 6, 2022, 2:31pm

    Neil MacGregor, the chair of the judging panel for this year’s Booker Prize, announced its shortlist today.

    MacGregor said that in each of the six books on the shortlist, “the author has used language not just to tell us what happened, but to create a world, an imagined universe, that we as outsiders can enter, can inhabit, can experience and feel as our own. In that imagined world, something momentous happens, to an individual or to a society. They realize who they are and what they can become.”

    “All of these books affirm the importance of finding and sharing the truth,” he added.

    MacGregor along with fellow judges Shahidha Bari, Helen Castor, M. John Harrison, and Alain Mabanckou narrowed down an initial pool of 169 books to 13 books on the longlist before determining the shortlist. This year’s longlist included three debut novels as well as the shortest book, the youngest author, and the oldest author to ever be longlisted.

    Each shortlisted author will receive £2,500, and the winner of the prize will receive £50,000 along with a spike in book sales and the prestige of the prize. The winner will be announced on October 17.

    Here is the shortlist:

    NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory

    NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory (Viking)

    Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

    Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These (Grove Press)

    Treacle Walker

    Alan Garner, Treacle Walker (4th Estate, HarperCollins)

    Percival Everett, The Trees (Graywolf Press)

    Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Sort Of Books)

    Elizabeth Strout, Oh William!

    Elizabeth Strout, Oh William! (Random House)

  • Become a Lit Hub Supporting Member: Because Books Matter

    For the past decade, Literary Hub has brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall. But our future relies on you. In return for a donation, you’ll get an ad-free reading experience, exclusive editors’ picks, book giveaways, and our coveted Joan Didion Lit Hub tote bag. Most importantly, you’ll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving on the internet.

    x