Why you should read the Booker Prize 2023 shortlist, according to our judges
We asked the Booker Prize 2023 judges to explain what impressed and delighted them most about each book on this year’s shortlist – and why they are relevant to today’s world
Novelist Esi Edugyan, twice-shortlisted for the Booker Prize, is the chair of the 2023 judging panel and is joined by actor, writer and director Adjoa Andoh; poet, lecturer, editor and critic Mary Jean Chan; Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and Shakespeare specialist James Shapiro; and actor and writer Robert Webb.
Here, they share their thoughts on the six books they have selected for the Booker Prize 2023 shortlist.
Booker Prize 2023 shortlisted books
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
How would you summarise this book in a sentence to encourage readers to pick it up?
Study for Obedience is an absurdist tale about how a stranger’s arrival in an unnamed town slowly unearths deep undercurrents of xenophobia, and it feels very like an allegory for the rise of ideological radicalism today. It is also a stirring meditation on survival.
Is there something unique about this book, something that you haven’t encountered in fiction before?
It has the uncanny charm of feeling like both a historical work – with its pastoral settings, petty superstitions, and suspicious villagers – and something bracingly modern. In this way it very cleverly, and with great irony, draws a link between a past we’d like to believe is behind us and our very charged present.
What do you think it is about this book that readers will not only admire, but really love?
The humour here is dry as a bone, very Bernhard-esque; it is obliquely and surprisingly funny.
Can you tell us about any particular characters that readers might connect with, and why?
The self-questioning narrator, her relentless uncertainty, is something we can all identify with.
Although it’s a work of fiction, is there anything about it that’s especially relevant to issues we’re confronting in today’s world?
That feeling of being completely out of one’s element when arriving in a new place is something we’ve all perhaps felt. And yet the extremes of the narrator’s persecution and estrangement seem a pointed critique of the demonisation of the outsider.
Is there one specific moment in the book that has stuck in your mind and, if so, why?
There are so many! It is all very elegantly done. One that comes to mind is the moment when the narrator discovers a strange mark carved into the post outside of her brother’s home. With her unusual perspective, she’s puzzled as to what it might be. The author never uses the words ‘swastika’, but the reader understands this implicitly, and it’s chilling.
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
How would you summarise this book in a sentence to encourage readers to pick it up?
In Jonathan Escoffery’s vital, captivating debut novel, each chapter takes us deeper into a family album of stories, revealing the life and survival of a family, fleeing the violence of early Seventies’ Jamaica for the uncertain sanctuary of a new beginning in America.
Is there something unique about this book, something that you haven’t encountered in fiction before?
The frank way in which the reader becomes complicit with the narrator in directly addressing the character at the heart of each story gripped us from the first. From the heartbreaking to the hilarious, Escoffery effortlessly conducts the various voices, contradictory in their perspectives, their dreams and desires, while wrestling with the age-old immigrant dilemma - who are my people and where do I belong?
What do you think it is about this book that readers will not only admire, but really love?
In the writer’s determination to express such empathy for each of the characters, even when their experience of the same story is diametrically opposed to someone else’s, Escoffery seems to say to us: everyone deserves the space to have themselves and their truth seen and heard.
Can you tell us about any particular characters that readers might connect with, and why?
Escoffery takes us back to the youth of Topper, an irredeemably closed-off man in the eyes of his family. We see him in Jamaica, full of hopes, ambitions and dreams and understand that that young man is within him still. In that moment Topper resonates with the part of us that longs at times to say ‘No, stop, you don’t understand - that’s not who I really am.’
Although it’s a work of fiction, is there anything about it that’s especially relevant to issues we’re confronting in today’s world?
As with the best fiction, all of life is here in unflinching detail: the vagaries of capitalism, our yearning for a safety net, international migration, the American Dream, the fragility of existence, climate change, catastrophic misunderstandings and the road not taken.
Is there one specific moment in the book that has stuck in your mind and, if so, why?
The opening of this dazzling book punches hard, providing a thump of recognition for anyone who has ever felt they are treading on shifting sands, trying to find a peaceful space in which simply to be.
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
How would you summarise this book in a sentence to encourage readers to pick it up?
This Other Eden powerfully reimagines a little-known chapter in American history: the heartbreaking fate in the early 20th century of the mixed-race descendants of a former slave, Benjamin Honey, and his Irish wife, Patience, who had settled on a small island off the coast of Maine in the 1790s.
Is there something unique about this book, something that you haven’t encountered in fiction before?
It’s rare to encounter a work of historical fiction that is at once so lyrical and so empathetic.
What do you think it is about this book that readers will not only admire, but really love?
While many readers will be struck by Harding’s inimitable voice, many more will also be drawn to his beautifully etched portraits of the inhabitants of Apple Island.
Can you tell us about any particular characters that readers might connect with, and why?
It’s impossible not to be captivated by the devoted and troubled Esther Honey, great-granddaughter of Benjamin and Patience, who anchors the narrative, has seen it all, is deeply connected to the past, and is keenly aware of her community’s vulnerability.
Although it’s a work of fiction, is there anything about it that’s especially relevant to issues we’re confronting in today’s world?
Though set in the past, it’s impossible to ignore the novel’s contemporary resonance, especially in its exploration of how those in power, convinced of their righteousness, abuse others whose identities and way of life don’t conform to their own.
Is there one specific moment in the book that has stuck in your mind and, if so, why?
It’s a book filled with many unforgettable moments, including the remarkable account of how the islanders miraculously survived the cataclysmic hurricane of 1815, with which the novel begins. But the image likely to endure the longest is the beautiful description of that late summer day in which the fleeting bond of the novel’s ill-fated young lovers, Ethan and Bridget, is captured forever through art.
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
How would you summarise this book in a sentence to encourage readers to pick it up?
Prophet Song follows one woman’s attempts to save her family in a dystopic Ireland sliding further and further into authoritarian rule. It is a shocking, at times tender novel that is not soon forgotten.
Is there something unique about this book, something that you haven’t encountered in fiction before?
The prose is a feast, with gorgeous rolling sentences you sink into. A stylistic gem.
What do you think it is about this book that readers will not only admire, but really love?
It is propulsive and unsparing, and it flinches away from nothing. This is an utterly brave performance by an author at the peak of his powers, and it is terribly moving.
Can you tell us about any particular characters that readers might connect with, and why?
Eilish is our guide through this relentless world, and we feel as deeply as she feels. The situations are sometimes dire, and yet she remains resilient, determined and, above all, human. She breaks our hearts.
Although it’s a work of fiction, is there anything about it that’s especially relevant to issues we’re confronting in today’s world?
Far from didactic, the book warns of the precarity of democratic ideals and the ugly possibilities that lie beyond their desecration.
Is there one specific moment in the book that has stuck in your mind and, if so, why?
Prophet Song has one of the most haunting endings you will ever read. The book lives long in the mind after you’ve set it down.
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
How would you summarise this book in a sentence to encourage readers to pick it up?
Western Lane is a mesmerising novel about how silence can reverberate within a family in the aftermath of grief. The story unfolds on a squash court; the reader quickly learns how sport can act as a balm for the living. It is also about sisterhood, and about the love that remains after a devastating loss.
Is there something unique about this book, something that you haven’t encountered in fiction before?
We deeply admired Maroo’s use of squash as a way of exploring disparate themes and emotional states.
What do you think it is about this book that readers will not only admire, but really love?
The language in this novel is truly something to be savoured. Western Lane contains crystalline prose that also feels warm and tender, which can be a difficult balance to strike.
Can you tell us about any particular characters that readers might connect with, and why?
Readers will feel a strong connection with the eleven-year-old protagonist, Gopi, as she navigates her life on and off the squash court.
Although it’s a work of fiction, is there anything about it that’s especially relevant to issues we’re confronting in today’s world?
Bereavement is something which we will all experience one day in some shape or form, and the complexity of familial dynamics is another universal theme which Western Lane explores with great sincerity and depth of feeling.
Is there one specific moment in the book that has stuck in your mind and, if so, why?
The opening paragraph of the novel is exquisite. Even after reading it for the third time (before the shortlist judging meeting) we were blown away by the power and precision of Maroo’s words.
Western Lane by Chetna Maroo
How would you summarise this book in a sentence to encourage readers to pick it up?
The Bee Sting is the very funny, sad and truthful story of the Barnes family, set in contemporary Ireland and written with considerable wit and compassion.
What do you think it is about this book that readers will not only admire, but really love?
The characters are unforgettable. They persist with hope and are capable of startling moments of love and generosity, despite their myriad flaws and problems.
Can you tell us about any particular characters that readers might connect with, and why?
Imelda Barnes is a wonderful creation - initially we see her exterior waspishness and materialism but as the book progresses, Murray skilfully reveals the family secrets which have led them all to their present situation. Imelda’s response to the hardship of her childhood is at once courageous, self-deluding and entirely human.
Although it’s a work of fiction, is there anything about it that’s especially relevant to issues we’re confronting in today’s world?
Paul Murray’s concern with the climate crisis lurks in the background and also impinges onto the story. His characters are at various different points of engagement and denial.
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Watch our shortlist films
The Booker Prize 2023 judges
Esi Edugyan on judging the Booker Prize 2023
