Many novels in the Booker Library feature improbable pairings, showing that close personal connections can be made in the most unexpected of circumstances. Here are some of our favourites
Close friendships can grow out of the strangest of circumstances and between people who, on the surface, have nothing in common. Whether formed due to a shared traumatic history, a unique mutual interest or a bizarre and intense encounter, some relationships can’t be explained.
Unlikely friendships can form the basis of fascinating works of fiction, as the Booker-nominated books on this list demonstrate. Regardless of biology, backgrounds or beliefs, these books prove that true friendship knows no bounds.
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2018, Washington Black introduces readers to the titular Wash, an 11-year-old slave living on a Barbados sugar plantation in the 1830s – but before long becomes a gripping and ambitious adventure that transports readers to Europe, Africa and the Arctic Circle. Wash’s young life is one of hardship and cruelty, but things take a turn when his master’s eccentric brother, Titch, offers him the role of personal assistant. A naturalist, explorer, inventor and abolitionist, Titch becomes Wash’s friend and mentor, teaching him to read and write, and enlisting Wash’s artistic talents in the creation of a unique invention, a Cloud-Cutter – a balloon-shaped flying craft that will help them escape terra firma and experience a life beyond their imaginations. Blending historical fiction with steampunk elements, Edugyan’s novel starts with the horrors of slavery and becomes a soaring, Jules Verne-esque epic.
Laura Miller from The New Yorker described this memorable tale of freedom and friendship as ‘both beautiful and tormenting, liberating and circumscribed’.
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In Richard Powers’ Playground – which was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024 – two boys from vastly different backgrounds meet at an elite Chicago prep school. Todd Keane comes from a privileged, wealthy family, while Rafi Young is a Black scholarship student from a poor, dysfunctional home. The boys bond over their love of chess and the ancient Chinese board game Go, but as they each grow to pursue different interests, their friendship starts to dissipate, especially once young artist Ina Aroita becomes entwined in both of their lives. Todd’s obsession with computer science leads him to become a famous tech billionaire (and creator of a Meta-level social media platform called Playground), while Rafi’s love of literature sees him become a poet, and marry Ina. Powers’ 14th novel combines the contrasting themes of ocean conservation and the dangers of AI, while zooming in on complex relationships shaped by class and betrayal.
In the Guardian, Yagnishsing Dawoor wrote: ‘Playground is at once a portrait of a three-way friendship, a cyberpunk thriller of sorts, an Anthropocene novel, an oceanic tale and an allegory of postcolonialism. It is as brilliant on land as it is undersea, and as dizzyingly wise about technology as it is about island culture, capitalism and ecology.’
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United by devastating loss, Palestinian scholar Bassam Aramin and Israeli graphic designer Rami Elhanan strike up a close friendship that defies all odds. Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2020, Colum McCann’s unconventional book – divided into 1,001 micro chapters, and described by its author as a ‘hybrid novel’ – is based on real events, and weaves together history, politics, art and grief. The two men at the centre of the story have both lost their young daughters in horrifying circumstances, but forge a connection with one another that they use as a catalyst for peace. The book combines both factual and fictional elements of their heartbreaking stories, and presents the Middle East crisis as a story far more complex than two opposing viewpoints – indeed the book’s title is the mathematical term for an object with a seemingly infinite number of sides.
Writing for the Guardian, Alex Preston said that ‘for all its grief, Apeirogon is a novel that buoys the heart. The friendship of Bassam and Rami is a thing of great and sustaining beauty.’
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Joe Coppock is a sickly young boy who lives alone, passing the time by collecting birds’ eggs and reading comics – and with no parents in sight. Looking at the world through a lazy eye, Joe’s impaired vision hinders his quality of life, but opens up a world of imagination. When the titular Treacle Walker, a sort of supernatural elderly rag-and-bone man with the ability to cure most ills, knocks on Joe’s door, an unlikely and profound age-gap friendship is formed.
One of the shortest books ever nominated for the Booker Prize (it was shortlisted in 2022, when its author was 87 years old), this deceptively simple fable is not only rooted in the myths, language and landscape of the Cheshire countryside where Garner has spent his entire life, but is also a quiet meditation on time, space and quantum physics.
In the Telegraph, Sam Leith wrote: ‘Garner knots together a whole range of mythological and fairy-story motifs, and tropes from children’s stories – double-vision, looking-glass worlds, wise fools, monsters that can’t cross a threshold unless invited in, obscurely understood magical objects – to create a small universe absolutely charged with meaning.’
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Elizabeth Taylor’s 11th novel sees the recently widowed Laura Palfrey move into the Claremont retirement hotel in west London, a place that’s filled with eccentric elderly residents who thrive on gossip. With no visits from her daughter or grandson to look forward to, Mrs Palfrey begins to feel lonely. But when a curious and impoverished young writer, Ludo, helps her after she suffers a fall outside his basement flat, the pair strike up an unlikely friendship. The plot centres around a misunderstanding and a white lie, with Mrs Palfrey allowing her fellow guests to believe that Ludo is her grandson, while she provides inspiration for his novel. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1971, the book missed out on the top prize after being dismissed by judge Saul Bellow with the line, ‘I hear the tinkling of tea cups’. But this is no twee tale – it’s a novel that explores, often with playful humour, the challenges of getting old, while also providing a new perspective on the enduring power of friendship, regardless of age.
In the Observer, Robert McCrum described Taylor’s novel as ‘her masterpiece’, including it in his list of the 100 best novels written in English. ‘Much of the reader’s joy lies in the exquisite subtlety in Taylor’s depiction of all the relationships, the sharp brevity of her wit, and the apparently effortless way the plot unfolds.’
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Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022, Mieko Kawakami’s heartbreaking coming-of-age novel follows a lonely, unnamed 14-year-old Japanese boy with a facial difference, who is bullied relentlessly by other students at his school. Slowly drawn to a fellow outsider, Kojima – a teenage girl who is bullied due to her scruffy clothes and poor hygiene – the pair are bonded by mutual suffering. As the two outcasts’ tender, secret friendship develops, they seek not so much to escape their torment as to answer the question: why them?
Writing for The Skinny, Katie Goh said: ‘Heaven’s exploration of casual cruelty won’t be for everyone – there are passages which rival Stephen King in their depiction of young characters’ depravity – but the short novel is a poignant and unsettling look at what makes a friendship and, on a macro level, what makes an unequal society.’
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Set in the 1990s but with the mood of a much older novel, Enlightenment tells the story of Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay, who, though separated by three decades in age, become close friends, united by their shared religious beliefs and curiosity to explore the world. Fusty fiftysomething stargazer Thomas works for a newspaper in the Essex town of Aldleigh, while 17-year-old Grace is eager to shed her strict religious upbringing and open herself up to freedom and adventure. The two form an unconventional connection as they help each other understand their place in the world. Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, Enlightenment explores an alliance of kindred spirits against a backdrop of amateur astronomy and a century-old ghost story.
In the Literary Review, John Burnside wrote that ‘Perry keeps the reader gripped with every twist and turn of events, all the while exploring the nature of friendship, the mysteries of love and faith (not to mention light and matter) and the question of what enlightenment truly means.’
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In a deserted town in post-apartheid South Africa, Dr Frank Eloff is the deputy director of a run-down rural hospital, vying for the top job. Meanwhile, a young, optimistic junior doctor – Dr Laurence Waters – arrives to complete his one-year community service stint, and wanting to do work that provides real meaning. The hopeful, idealistic Laurence, bursting with ideas to improve the hospital and local community, is the polar opposite of the rational and cynical Frank. As the two men are forced to share a room, they start to build an unsteady friendship – until Frank begins to doubt Laurence’s true intentions. Galgut’s fifth novel was shortlisted for the Booker in 2003 – 18 years before he eventually won the prize for The Promise. It has been described as a parable of South Africa on the brink of transformation, with the indolent, world-weary Eloff and the naive, blinkered Waters personifying the two faces of a country at a crossroads.
In the Independent, Julie Wheelwright described the novel as a ‘gripping read, laced throughout with powerful emotional truth and Damon Galgut’s extraordinary vision.’
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Winner of the Booker Prize in 2004, Hollinghurst’s novel of greed, class, sex and politics in the 1980s depicts a world of privilege from the perspective of a naive outsider. After falling under the spell of wealthy Toby Fedden at Oxford, protagonist Nick Guest is invited to join the Feddens’ elevated world while he pursues his PhD in London. Nick soon becomes accustomed to the family’s glamorous lifestyle, all the while trying to make sense of his own identity and the scandals that are occurring around him. The book features a memorable cameo from Margaret Thatcher, with whom Nick dances at a party, but it’s Nick’s relationship with the damaged and needy Catherine Fedden, the younger sister of his old friend Toby, that provides the book’s emotional bedrock. Despite their very different backgrounds, Nick and Catherine form a strong bond, as Nick supports her through her mental health struggles and they become each other’s confidant.
In the New York Times Sunday Book Review, Anthony Quinn wrote: ‘Although it gathers ominously in mood, The Line of Beauty feels more blissful than baleful in its anatomy of the era because it is, among other things, a magnificent comedy of manners. Hollinghurst’s alertness to the tiniest social and tonal shifts never slackens, and positively luxuriates in a number of unimprovably droll set pieces.’
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While most of the friendships on this list are unexpected due to a combination of conflicting personalities and backgrounds, the most unlikely of all features a friendship – of sorts – between different species.
Canadian writer Yann Martel takes the elements of an almost child-like story and constructs a complex allegory about faith, truth and survival. It is narrated, unreliably, by Piscine (Pi) Molitor, an Indian boy who is travelling with his relatives – and some animals from the family zoo – from Asia to North America. When their ship sinks a few days into its journey, Pi finds himself alone on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. What starts as a story of survival – with Pi attempting to tame the apex predator so that it doesn’t kill him – turns into a strange alliance that allows them both to coexist as peacefully as possible while stranded at sea.
While deeply philosophical and exploring challenging themes, the novel was a smash hit around the world, selling over 12 million copies to date and winning the Booker Prize in 2002. In the New York Times, Gary Krist wrote that Pi ‘comes to realise that survival involves knowing when to assert himself and when to hold back, when to take the upper hand and when to yield to a power greater than himself. He discovers, in other words, that living with a tiger ultimately requires acts of both will and faith.’
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