Reading Guides

Explore the first work of speculative fiction from Korea nominated for the International Booker Prize and discover how Chung addresses the reality of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society.

Discover what the judges had to say about this unique story that interweaves crime fiction with intimate tales of morality and the search for individual freedom.

Use this guide to understand why Happy Stories, Mostly, puts queer characters front and centre, and why the author wants to connect with his readers through translation.

Use these prompts to guide your reading of Heaven, and discover how its unflinching focus on bullying prompted public conversation about this major problem in Japan.

Explore why the judges thought Love in the Big City is ‘disarmingly confessional but never sentimental, even while sifting through the desolation of human existence’ and Anton Hur’s translation was ‘brilliantly idiomatic’.

Discover more about the novel that was written to show ‘that violence is not something that’s exclusively tied to misery or poverty, but something that could also be born in the heart of “paradise”’. 

Explore why David Grossman’s novel and Jessica Cohen’s translation asks us to confront our deepest-held beliefs about a woman’s duty to herself and to her children.

Explore our guide to Phenotypes, which the judges thought was a ‘remarkably open and honest study of race’ and find out what personal experiences drove the author to write it.

Use our guide to read what the judges said was a ‘stark, no-holds-barred depiction of a mother-daughter relationship’.

Discover the inspiration behind Tomb of Sand, a novel that simultaneously confronts the experiences of Partition while re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman and a feminist. 

Discover more about Enlightenment Europe on the cusp of precipitous change with our reading guide for The Books of Jacob.

Further your reading of After the Sun, a darkly surreal exploration of class, capitalism, power and sexuality.

Use this guide to inform your reading of A New Name, the final movement in Jon Fosse’s monumental Septology which draws together art, death, and the idea of God. 

The judges said the story of A Passage North ‘unfurls like smoke’. Use this guide to discuss what the book says about powerlessness and the present moment.

The judges described The Promise as an ‘accomplishment and truly deserving of its place on the shortlist’. Discover more about the book with the talking points in this guide.

The judges described Patricia Lockwood’s novel as a ‘funny, poignant and challenging book’. Use this guide to look at her use of language and how she portrays the modern world.

From the evocative portrayal of 1950s Cardiff to its multiple perspective, use our questions to guide your reading of The Fortune Men, described by the judges as ‘a story as local as it is exhilaratingly global’.

The judges said Bewilderment was a ‘clarion call for us to wake up and realise what our minds might be truly capable of if we were less obedient to the status quo’. Delve into the book with our guide.

Explore how Maggie Shipstead’s novel, described by the judges as a ‘book of tremendous narrative ambition and scale’, is huge in scale without becoming a sprawl.

Unique insights from the judges, the author and the translator of this ‘astonishing’ novel, winner of the 2021 International Booker Prize

The judges spent a lot of time discussing whether or not Maria Stepanova’s novel is ‘fiction’. Discover why - and decide if you agree.

Author Éric Vuillard, translator Mark Polizzotti and the 2021 judges raise talking points from this ‘blazing piece of historical fiction’

What does Olga Ravn say about our obsession with work - and do you agree with a judge’s opinion that the book is ‘a novel about love’?

Discover the judges’ views of a book the author himself describes as ‘strange’, a novel that walks the fine line between fact and fiction

Explore the ‘magical realism 2.0’ of Mariana Enríquez, and her extraordinary combination of ‘horror story, ghost story and pulp fiction’

Discussion suggestions and useful links to help further explore the final volume of Hilary Mantel’s masterful trilogy

Exploring Maaza Mengiste’s meticulously researched novel that focuses on the experiences of women in war

Introducing Diane Cook’s future-shock novel, with book reviews, themed reading ideas and discussion topics

Guide to Brandon Taylor’s powerful debut, with its themes of micro-aggression, abuse, racism, homophobia, trauma, grief and alienation

A guide to Douglas Stuart’s moving and compassionate 2020 Booker-winning novel about the unequal struggle between addiction and a child’s love

Delve deeper into Anne Tyler’s ‘beautifully written’ novel, with themed reading suggestions and links to external reviews

Background, discussion points and further reading links for Kiley Reid’s insightful, engaging debut novel

Background, reviews and themed reading ideas for Tsitsi Dangarembga’s tense and psychologically charged novel

Insight and topic ideas for Avni Dosh’s compelling portrait of a complex and unusual mother-daughter relationship

Background and discussion points for Gabriel Krauze’s confrontational and relentlessly intense debut novel

Talking points around Colum McCann’s epic novel - named after ‘a shape with a countably infinite number of sides’

Discussion ideas and useful links for Sophie Ward’s mind-expanding and constantly surprising debut