Through one man’s unique story, Jon McGregor pays homage to ‘ordinary’ lives, and explores how chance constantly alters the course of events
Jon McGregor
Jon McGregor, aged 26, became the Booker Prize’s youngest nominee when his first novel was longlisted. His second and fourth novels would also go on to be nominated
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things is the story – or rather stories – of a day in the life of an unremarkable British street. McGregor later explained that the setting was Bradford where he had studied (he was born in Bermuda) and was inspired by events following the death of Princess Diana. ‘Life was going on regardless’ so he set out ‘to take a day in the life of one street in a city, and try to show the vast multiplicity of stories which were happening there’. McGregor wrote the book while living on a narrowboat moored in Nottingham.
All nominated books
In an extraordinary novel of cumulative power and grace, Jon McGregor tells the story of many lives haunted by one family's loss
Jon McGregor’s spellbinding debut novel details a remarkable and horrific event, poignant only to those who saw it - whose lives it changes forever
