The longlist for the 2014 Booker Prize has just been announced. I’m impressed by the selection as it appears to be a nice mixture of themes and styles and some are new to me. Five books aren’t published until September, so we’ll have to wait a while for those.
The 2014 Booker Longlist:
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
Five words from the blurb: Burma, prisoner, camp, starvation, letter
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
History of the Rain by Niall Williams
Five words from the blurb: Ireland, twin, hopeful, ancestors, farming
The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee
Five words from the blurb: saga, Bengali, society, fractures, family
Us by David Nicholls
Five words from the blurb: family, husbands, wives, parents, children
Orfeo by Richard Powers
Five words from the blurb: composer, police, experiment, music, fugitive
The Dog by Joseph O’Neill
(no cover or blurb available)
How to be both by Ali Smith
Five words from the blurb: art, versatility, love, playful, mysterious
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Five words from the blurb: sister, vanished, unique, trouble, story
The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth
Five words from the blurb: battle, Hastings, Norman, resistance, fighters
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris
Five words from the blurb: New York, dentist, privacy, Facebook, sanity
J by Howard Jacobson
Five words from the blurb: love, questions, brutality, suspicion, denial
My thoughts
I’ve only tried three of them:
The Narrow Road to the Deep North was an impressive book, with fantastic writing, but I’m afraid I abandoned it as the subject matter was too dark.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves was a lovely book, but it was ruined for me as I accidentally discovered the spoiler in advance and I think the magic of this book is lost if you know the twist.
Blazing World was an impressive book – see my review
Of those that I haven’t tried I’m most looking forward to reading Orfeo and The Wake. I haven’t had much success with novels by Howard Jacobson (don’t get his humour), Joshua Ferris (too experimental) or Ali Smith (too experimental) in the past and so may give them a miss unless someone can convince me they are vastly different/better than their previous novels. The rest look interesting and I look forward to trying them, but I’m in no rush, especially as most aren’t even out yet.
12 replies on “The 2014 Booker Longlist”
Your approach makes them sound much more inticing. I’m not sure I’ll be running out to read any of these soon though.
Ellie, Thank you! I find it helps me to get an idea about whether or not I’ll like a book – long blurbs can be intimidating 🙂
Delighted to see Flanagan on there. It’s by far my favourite book of the year. The story of how it came to be written / the research he did is almost more impressive (and as heartbreaking) than the actual book — and that’s saying a lot.
I read History of the Rain earlier in the year and quite liked it, but I wouldn’t peg it as the winner.
Kim, I haven’t heard the story about how he came to write it, other than the brief note on the blurb. I’ll have to keep an eye out for an author talk from him because I’d love to hear the background information.
I’ve a copy of History of the Rain here, but I’m not that excited about it. Perhaps it will exceed my expectations?
Thanks to blog a longer know what books are worth reading. First they buy a History of the Rain.
Joe, Glad I was of help 🙂
It’s such a great list this year! I’m currently on publishing work experience and have been working closely with the editor of one of the longlisted books that’s not out until September, and it’s so exciting to see the way the company adapts to accommodate the longlist. Thanks for this post on the keywords – I’m really wanting to read The Bone Clocks and Orfeo now. x
Tamsin, Yes, it must be very exciting when a book in your company is longlisted. I hope everything goes well for it 🙂
The Bone Clocks and Orfeo are top of my list too. I hope they live up to expectations!
I was so thrilled to see the Karen Joy Fowler book on there — I loved it. And I’m sad that you weren’t able to enjoy it! I hope I wasn’t the one who spoiled it for you. I know I wasn’t super careful about spoilers on that one, because I was spoiled well in advance (the twist was the reason I was interested in the book in the first place), and I still thought the book was absolutely fantastic.
Jenny, No, don’t worry – it wasn’t you! It was actually the Guardian newspaper on Twitter. They started a whole conversation about the spoiler 🙁 It turned into a big debate about whether or not it was right to reveal it, but it lasted several hours and I’m sure it led to many people finding it out. Such a shame.
I’d love to see Karen Joy Fowler win it. I discovered the twist before I read it (there was so much in the media you couldn’t avoid it!) but I loved the narrator. Brilliant book.
Nicola, It’s good to hear that you enjoyed it, despite knowing the twist. I can’t see it winning, but you never know!