Chair of the judges, Maya Jasanoff, writes of this year’s longlist, “One thing that unites these books is their power to absorb the reader in an unusual story, and to do so in an artful, distinctive voice. Many of them consider how people grapple with the past—whether personal experiences of grief or dislocation or the historical legacies of enslavement, apartheid, and civil war. Many examine intimate relationships placed under stress, and through them meditate on ideas of freedom and obligation, or on what makes us human. — The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) July 26, 2021 It’s particularly resonant during the pandemic to note that all of these books have important things to say about the nature of community, from the tiny and secluded to the unmeasurable expanse of cyberspace. Reading in lockdown fostered a powerful sense of connection with the books.”
2021 Booker Prize Longlist
A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam Second Place by Rachel Cusk The Promise by Damon Galgut The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro An Island by Karen Jennings A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed Bewilderment by Richard Powers China Room by Sunjeev Sahota Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford The panel of judges for this year’s award include historian Maya Jasanoff (Chair), writer and editor Horatia Harrod, actor Natascha McElhone, twice Booker-shortlisted novelist and professor Chigozie Obioma, and writer and former Archbishop Rowan Williams. Check out more of Book Riot’s coverage of the Booker Prize.
