Those accustomed to complaining about the number of American writers nominated for the Booker prize since the widening of eligibility in 2014 will get a pleasant surprise this year: the sector that leads is Irish writers – and people called Paul. That’s not the only surprise; the judges have chosen to spotlight some little-known debuts in the place of major novels. While it feels reductive to read the longlist in terms of what’s not included, many will have expected to see Zadie Smith’s September novel The Fraud, and Tom Crewe’s acclaimed debut The New Life, among others.
A Spell of Good Things by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ (Canongate)
Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry (Faber & Faber)
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein (Granta Books)
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery (4th Estate)
How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney (Harvill Secker)
This Other Eden by Paul Harding (Hutchinson Heinemann)
Pearl by Siân Hughes (The Indigo Press)
All the Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow (Tinder Press)
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (Oneworld)
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes (Atlantic Books)
Western Lane by Chetna Maroo (Picador)
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (Hamish Hamilton)
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (Canongate)
The presence of four Irish writers, meanwhile, is far from surprising (and that’s without the inclusion of Anne Enright’s fine forthcoming novel The Wren, The Wren, or Claire Kilroy’s scorching tale of new motherhood, Soldier Sailor). Sebastian Barry is a veteran author who pushes himself with each new book, and Old God’s Time is a devastating, dreamlike study of the lifetime repercussions of historic childhood abuse in Catholic institutions. Paul Murray, loved for 2010’s tragicomic Skippy Dies, writes the novel of his career with The Bee Sting, which uncovers a family’s slow-burning secrets against a backdrop of climate anxiety – in terms of pure page-turning pleasure, this is probably the most enjoyable novel on the list. Elaine Feeney’s How to Build a Boat explores the meaning of community and outsiderdom through one boy’s story, while Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song, scheduled for September, is a chilling study of Ireland becoming a fascist state.
It’s refreshing to see Lynch’s dystopia nominated for a prize often focused on historical fiction, and this is an impressive novel in stylistic as well as political terms, staying close to one woman’s consciousness throughout. Eilish must try to maintain normal family life after her husband is detained by the police for union activity; Lynch is brilliant at capturing people’s disbelief and denial throughout the slow slide into totalitarianism. An urgent, important read.
It’s fantastic, too, to see a slice of science fiction on the list. Scottish author Martin MacInnes is an unusual and groundbreaking writer, and with his third novel he has come into his powers. In Ascension is a tale of cosmic exploration and existential wonder, delving into both intimate family ties and the beginning of life itself, and travelling from the ocean floor to deep space.
Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng is a familiar face on the Booker – this is his third nomination with as many novels. He excels at historical fiction, and The House of Doors begins in 1920s Penang as the visiting Somerset Maugham hears stories of colonial scandal and Chinese revolutionaries. It’s a sideways view on empire, global disruption and the court of public opinion with sharp relevance to today. The Pulitzer winner Paul Harding’s novel This Other Eden is also inspired by real-life events: here the forced resettlement of a tiny island off the coast of Maine at the beginning of the 20th century, where a handful of mixed-race families, descended from trafficked Africans and poor immigrants, had found hardscrabble autonomy and freedom from a racist society. Ideas about eugenics and “civilisation” intrude on the narrative as Harding uses lush, biblical language to conjure a vanished miniature world with the power of a fable. There’s also a fabular tinge to Sarah Bernstein’s Study for Obedience, as a woman is ostracised by a community soaked in the horrors of the past.
The experience of the outsider, and the search for identity, is a strong theme on this year’s list. Jonathan Escoffery’s If I Survive You features a Jamaican family in late 20th-century Miami, and the two brothers’ struggles to survive racism and poverty. It’s a fluid, freewheeling work greeted by many as linked short stories rather than a novel, often darkly humorous and employing the second person to clever effect – “You were born in the United States and you’ve got the paperwork to prove it.” Ayòbámi Adébáyò’s A Spell of Good Things also exposes social inequality, along with state corruption and stifling conventions, in a novel about rich and poor families in noughties Nigeria.
Adébáyò focuses on teenage Eniolá, whose promise is curtailed by the failings of the state. It’s striking how many of the longlisted titles include coming-of-age narratives and youthful protagonists. Chetna Maroo’s debut Western Lane is a stunning example of the often-tired trope of the child narrator who sees more than they can express. Her spare, tender, brilliantly achieved debut follows 11-year-old Gopi and her sisters after the death of their mother, as their father channels their grief into playing squash. It’s a novel that unfolds in silences and the echoes of the ball ricocheting around the court, and dares to leave much unsaid.
There’s another missing mother in the first of the two wild-card debuts on the list, poet Siân Hughes’s Pearl, from the tiny Indigo Press. Inspired by the medieval poem of the same name, it’s a gently folkloric tale of grief and healing grounded in eight-year-old Marianne’s memories of her mother’s love, and reaching forward to her own future as a mother. Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow’s All the Little Bird-Hearts also looks at motherhood, as autistic Sunday’s relationship with her teenage daughter is challenged by a dangerous new friend. Lloyd-Barlow is autistic, and her novel explores difference and connection within family bonds.
The anxious and obsessive 13-year-old Jamie in Feeney’s novel will also be read as neurodiverse (and is another character mourning their mother). There are many intimate, poetic novels here of grief and growing up, of what it feels like to be an outsider in relation to your community, or to be othered by the state. Across the list, the personal meets the political in fascinating ways.
Browse all the novels on the Booker prize 2023 longlist at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
