Shehan Karunatilaka, NoViolet Bulawayo and Elizabeth Strout

The writers who inspired the Booker Prize 2022's shortlisted authors

Behind every great novelist… there’s another great novelist. Here, NoViolet Bulawayo, Shehan Karunatilaka and Elizabeth Strout talk about their biggest influences

Published September 6, 2023

NoViolet Bulawayo on George Orwell: ‘Animal Farm sent me foraging my childhood’

Many Zimbabweans saw Orwell’s novel as a story that could have been written for them, but in writing Glory, NoViolet Bulawayo wanted a more revolutionary ending

Shehan Karunatilaka on Kurt Vonnegut: ‘He's the genius I have robbed from the most'

The author of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, winner of the Booker Prize 2022, explains why its plot, tone and black humour all owe a debt to the American writer

Elizabeth Strout on William Trevor: ‘He taught me that the writer’s voice can be quiet’

The Oh William! author, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, explains what she has learnt from William Trevor, including how to be compassionate to her characters