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In the world of the Booker Prizes this week: we revisit a haunting fable about the power of memory; we celebrate Black History Month 2023; plus, take our quiz on half a century of prize Pauls
Discover our October Book of the Month: The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder
Throughout October, we’re celebrating our latest Book of the Month – Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police, which was translated from Japanese by Stephen Snyder. A haunting meditation on loss from one of Japan’s greatest writers, the novel found a new audience when published in English, making the shortlist for the International Booker Prize in 2020.
Upon publication, critics – including WIRED – hailed The Memory Police in what it called ‘a time of pervasive doublespeak and gaslighting’. It’s a sentiment echoed by the novel’s translator, Stephen Snyder, in an exclusive interview for the Booker Prizes website. ‘The relevance,’ he said, ‘both to the world as it learned to live with “fake news” and contested online “realities” and, later, to our slowly eroding existence in the pandemic era – came from the genius of the text itself.’
If you’d like to know more, you can read Stephen Snyder’s full interview here. We’ve also published an extract from the beginning of the novel, and have compiled a detailed reading guide. Don’t miss our latest episode of The Booker Prize Podcast, where Jo Hamya and James Walton take a closer look at the book, and make sure you enter our competition to win a copy of The Memory Police, along with a Booker Prize tote bag.
Black History Month: 10 Booker Prize-nominated books that celebrate Black women
Sarah Gwonyoma, who writes as whatsarahreadnext, recommends ten books from the Booker archives for Black History Month, which is celebrating the achievements of Black women in 2023.
From coming-of-age stories to remarkable tales of women at war, this selection of fiction pays homage to the Black women authors of the Booker Library, their writing and their experiences.
Quiz: how well do you know the Booker Prize's Pauls?
For the first time since 2015, this year’s Booker Prize shortlist features more men than women. And for the first time ever, three writers called Paul are shortlisted, and one of them may become the third Paul to win the prize. But they are far from the only distinguished Pauls to be part of the Booker fraternity. Take our quiz to find out more about Murray, Harding, Lynch and all the others – and to put your knowledge to the test.
And finally…
If you’d like to join the conversation on the Booker Prize 2023, including discussions on the shortlist, don’t forget to sign up to the new Booker Prize Book Club on Facebook, where you can access Booker Prize exclusives and win a range of prizes, including tickets to our prize ceremony in London. See you there!