Who Will Win the Booker Prize 2023

So tonight, at the rather late time of 9pm the winner of the Booker prize  will be announced, as with tradition at a grand dinner where all the shortlisted authors will be waiting with bated breath.

the LongList

With a record number of new authors on the list, and a high number of women writers, the Booker are justifiably proud of their longest this year, and also point out that none of the six shortlisted authors have been shortlisted before 

I  have read nine of the books chosen to be judged. And of those 6 didn't make it to the shortlist. For each book I've read, I've marked it with five possible points. Not sure how the judges do it, but I worked like this; 

ONE POINT for the crafts of writing; dramatic tension, pace, light and shade and mood, structure                         choice of Point of View, appropriate imagery

ONE POINT for the narrative voice and its arc.

ONE POINT for characterisation; did I fall in love (or hate!) with the characters?

ONE POINT for creativity 

ONE POINT  for sheer brilliance

The Longlist - these are the books that didn't make it to the shortlist. 

In Acenstion Martin MacInnes                                FOUR POINTS

The House of Doors.  by Tan Than Eng                  FOUR POINTS

All the Little Bird-Hearts                                         FOUR POINTS

Pearl    by Siân Hughes                                            TWO POINTS 

How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney                   THREE POINTS 

Old God's Time   by Sebastian Barry                      TWO POINTS 

A Spell of Good Things by  Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀.   THREE POINTS

                                 

                           

        The Shortlist - these are the books that are up for tonight's prize

The Bee Sting            THREE POINTS

Western Lane           THREE POINTS

Prophet Song           FOUR AND A HALF POINTS

This Other Eden        FOUR POINTS

If I Survive You        sadly, not read

Study for Obedience    THREE POINTS 

As you can see, my points system stirs up some problems. I was really sorry to see that The House of Doors. missed out on the short list. Set mostly in Malaysia around 1911, and featuring a fictional narrator who is telling the story of three historical figures, this scored highly with me for everything apart from 'sheer brilliance' and I  recommend it as more accessible and enjoyable  than Tan Twan Eng's previous booker longlisted novel, The Garden of Evening Mists.

All the Little Bird-Hearts  was another favourite of mine, especially after receiving an unnecessarily vitriolic review in the Sunday Times Culture supplement, which seemed to be suggesting a book with the theme of an autistic woman, writing by a woman with autism, would not be worth reading, let alone judging. I loved it  –– it was original and inventive, heart-warming with a strong narrative voice, a very enjoyable plot and a charming outcome. 

But neither of these had the  'sheer brilliance' that is needed to win the booker. Neither, I feel has any of the books I've read from the shortlist. Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein was very creative and cleverly written and for those reasons has 'Booker' painted all over it, but it rather left me cold. I didn't fall in love with the unnamed narrator, and didn't thank the author for offering little, if any dialogue. Pearl   by Siân Hughes, is beautifully crafted and I'm glad it had its longest moment, but there is one book that really should have moved forward and didn't.

In Ascension, by Martin MacInnes was described by The Guardian as 'a cosmic wonder'. The review  went on....MacInnes evokes a spread of human intimacies, simultaneously capturing them in the largest possible contexts.... I was captivated by the enormous story that this long book contains as it moves from Northern Europe and an unhappy childhood to the deepest trenches of the ocean, to quest for further space travel to to darkest reaches of the solar system. I was amazed that I kept loving this book as I am usually left cold by 'Sci Fi', but although this novel fulfils the themes of that genre, it is also warm and  atmospheric, richly described, full of humanity and humility,  detailed, yet amazingly profound.

Western Lane, a story about a bereaved family is almost slender enough to be called a novella, and on finishing it I felt this book would have benefitted from a more rounded approach; the main character was the youngest of three sisters, all, having just lost their mother. If we'd seen what the other sisters were thinking and feeling, as well, this might have recommended itself to me a little more.  

This Other Eden, by Paul Harding is skilfully written, with strong characters and great narrative drive, and is extremely imaginative, with it's Apple Island setting, but I honestly don't think it should have that final point, for sheer brilliance, what the Booker describes as 'the outstanding book of its year'. 

 The Bee Sting, by Paul Murray, the story of the deteriorating lives of an Irish family which starts off in an extremely entertaining and readable manner, but I needed stamina to get to the end. 

And the winner is:

Prophet Song, by Paul Lynch

The Booker website described the winning novel as a ‘triumph of emotional storytelling; a crucial book for our current times’.

 The author received £50,000 (which he ays he'll spend on paying off his mortgagee!) The event was hosted by Samira Ahmed and  Lynxg was presented with his trophy by Shehan Karunatilaka, the 2022 winner.

Heralded in one review as Prophet Song captures some of the biggest social and political anxieties of our age, from the rise of political extremism to the global plight of refugees 

Paul Lynch said of the book, ‘Prophet Song is partly an attempt at radical empathy. I wanted to deepen the reader’s immersion to such a degree that by the end of the book, they would not just know, but feel this problem for themselves’    

I fully endorse the judges decision, and that in itself surprised me! I loved this story. I read it in a couple of sittings (it's not terribly long, and totally compelling). The story is of 'our time' but is also timeless; I've seen this story in 1940 movies, in South American movies, in Kafka stories, in Russian stories.  It's that story of very normal people; a very normal Irish family who are swept up somehow in the country's move to far-right authoritarian extremism. As tyranny takes over the usually peaceful, liberal politics, the father disappears into jail, along with thousands of others, and his wife, with two teenagers, a younger boy and a baby, is left to make sense of what is happening. 

Perhaps one of the stand-out techniques Lynch uses is his disregard for paragraphs. He dispenses with them entirely, so that streams of dialogue run along lines, until we finally get to the end of that section of prose. It's a risky devise, but he pulls it off because, like the story itself, the layout continually prevents you even taking a breath.

It's a disturbing novel, one that needed to be written here in the northwest of Europe, but I found it problematic to read in bed, as the words insidiously creep into my dreams.

My points system worked well for this book; 

ONE POINT: especially for the way he builds tension in the story

ONE POINT for the compelling narrative voice and its arc.

ONE POINT for characterisation; I was terrified for the characters!

ONE POINT for creativity 

HALF A POINT  for sheer brilliance

Lynch was one of four Irish writers to make this year’s longlist  and he's  the sixth Irish author to win the Booker Prize, after Iris Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright and Anna Burns.

In the keynote speech of the evening,  Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, described the ways in which books had saved her when she was in solitary confinement in Tehran.

You can watch the event on  YouTube, featuring interviews with special guests.