From a list of 12 contenders, six novels have been selected for the 2023 Booker Prize shortlist. Our academics provide analyses of these finalists ahead of the winner’s announcement on November 26. Chetna Maroo’s delicate novel follows Gopi, a British Asian girl who plays squash intensely to manage her grief over her mother’s death. In Western Lane, the squash court becomes a space for processing the mixed emotions between a grieving father and his daughters. It also brings up other tensions, like her father’s memories of Mombasa in Kenya, the delicate interactions among British individuals from various South Asian backgrounds, interracial tension, and a budding romance. Vivid descriptions of competitive squash are paired with evocative references to Gujarati traditions and family dynamics. Together, these elements shape Gopi’s teenage perspective and help her deal with loss. This story transcends a single genre. Western Lane is both a compelling coming-of-age story about a girl’s journey through adolescence and a tale of grief that often leaves much unspoken. It is also a sports story that uses the physical and mental challenges of being an athlete to enhance its emotional impact. A splendid read.
Reviewed by Ananya Jahanara Kabir, professor of English literature, King’s College London. Paul Murray’s fourth novel, The Bee Sting, stands out as a 600-page engaging read. It is also exemplary in narrative perspective. Starting in the third person, it introduces us to the Barnes family through four novella-length sections. There’s struggling car salesman Dickie, his discontented wife Imelda, teenager Cass who dreams of life beyond their small Irish town, and tween PJ who, like the rest of the family, harbors a secret. The following section, Age of Loneliness, shifts between the second-person perspectives of the four main characters, with brief glimpses of other viewpoints as the story builds to a quick-paced climax. The novel addresses themes of class, wealth, isolation, and the hidden histories within a family’s self-narrative. The Bee Sting’s occasional distractions, such as minimal punctuation in Imelda’s sections, do not detract from its strengths, including a gripping atmosphere, surprising twists, and rich symbolism associated with the title. Reviewed by Bethany Layne, senior lecturer in English literature, De Montfort University. Sarah Bernstein’s Study for Obedience is a carefully crafted novel: complex, self-contained, unyielding. It begins when the unnamed female narrator moves to care for her elder brother, whose family has left.
The narrator’s focus on duty and obedience is tied to echoes of historical marginalization and exclusion linked to her identity. Inferred from repeated references to her scapegoating by the Christian community, her identity remains unnamed. While there are glimpses of her resistant individuality and her redefining service as empowerment, the story maintains its polished surface, focusing solely on studying obedience as a concept. Not claiming to represent anyone is part of the moral code the narrator upholds. However, the lack of dialogue and the sterile voice ultimately create a narrator constrained not just by her brother’s demands but by her own self-view. Reviewed by Alison Donnell, professor of modern literatures in English, University of East Anglia. In his evocative fifth novel, Paul Lynch envisions a near-future Ireland transforming into a repressive, authoritarian state under a right-wing populist regime. The reader’s guide through the novel’s increasingly dark moral landscape is commercial scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack, living in suburban Dublin with her husband Larry, a teacher and union activist. Larry’s abrupt arrest by a newly formed secret police prompts Eilish’s realization that “the state they live in has become a monster.” As her “great awakening begins,” Eilish’s entrapment by fear and panic accelerates swiftly, mirroring the country’s plunge into chaos and civil unrest. Lynch’s dense paragraphs vividly depict Eilish’s encirclement by harmful forces, which she desperately tries to shield her family from.
Prophet Song, like the finest dystopian realism, captivates the imagination with its unsettlingly plausible cautionary message. Reviewed by Liam Harte, professor of Irish literature, University of Manchester. If I Survive You shares the interconnected tales of men from a Jamaican family who migrate to Miami. The novel alternates between stories of brothers Trelawny and Delano, their father Topper, and their cousin Cukie as they confront issues of belonging, racial identity, displacement, father-son relationships, and hurricanes in 20th- and 21st-century America. Perhaps the most striking feature of Escoffrey’s novel is its lyrical narrative voice. It shifts between characters and first, second, and third person to create a rich, cinematic exploration of black masculinity and the immigrant experience. The opening chapter recounts Trelawny’s childhood experiences and his reflections on being asked “What are you?” concerning his racial identity. Escoffery skillfully highlights the complexities of this question and how blackness is perceived differently across cultures. If I Survive You is a beautifully crafted novel that presents many memorable characters, engages readers with humor and heart, and showcases Escoffrey’s remarkable storytelling talent. Reviewed by Leighan Renaud, lecturer in Caribbean literatures and cultures, University of Bristol. Paul Harding’s richly detailed novel, with its clever reference to Shakespeare’s scepter’d isle, alludes to the long literary tradition of islands as realms of creative possibilities.
The story addresses the destruction of a mixed-heritage community on the imaginary Apple Island, near the coast of Maine, by racist forces of missionary zeal and eugenic ideology. A broad range of narrative perspectives brings this world to vivid sensory life. The novel’s intricate, dreamlike prose sometimes contrasts sharply with the harsh realities of American history, particularly the fates of the real-life Malaga Islanders. The plot sometimes strains to encompass the complexities of transatlantic slavery, colonial conquest, and Irish settler migration. Yet Harding’s work is best viewed not as historical fiction but as a form of speculative writing. This Other Eden envisions vibrant possibilities for human connection, dignity, and hope, while also reminding us of the fragile nature of these ideals. Reviewed by Muireann O’Cinneide, lecturer in English, University of Galway.