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In the world of the Booker Prizes this week: We meet the publisher who has won the Booker three times; everything you need to know about the film adaptation of Eileen; and we celebrate Ann Schlee
‘I have the freedom to follow my intuition’: Juliet Mabey on winning the Booker Prize three times
Juliet Mabey’s independent publishing company Oneworld now boasts three Booker wins. We asked what she looks for in a novel, and what’s in store for Paul Lynch
The Booker Prizes: Prophet Song marks a hat-trick of Booker Prize wins for Oneworld and for you personally, after Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings and Paul Beatty’s The Sellout. Many people will be asking ‘What’s her secret? How does she do it?’ How would you answer that?
Juliet Mabey: ‘Literary prizes have been described as ‘posh bingo’, and obviously there is a huge amount of luck involved. I think I’ve been very lucky that on three occasions, my taste has coincided with the taste of the Booker judges. I’m also very lucky that, as the co-publisher of an independent, I can publish the books I am passionate about, and don’t have to justify my choices to a corporate board with sales and marketing concerns at the front of their minds. It gives me the sort of creative freedom a lot of editors would love to have.’
TBP: Does it feel different, winning the Booker for the third time, compared to your other two triumphs?
JM: ‘The first two wins were obviously a huge surprise. In both cases there was a very strong favourite from another publisher, so we went into the promotional week of activities feeling incredibly privileged to be on the shortlist, free to enjoy the experience, the camaraderie and the wonderful dinner in the Guildhall without any expectations. This year some of the bookies had Prophet Song as joint favourite and, even though they are seldom right, it definitely increased the tension.’
Everything you need to know about Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
Published in 2015, Eileen was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016 and saw Moshfegh hailed as a ‘crucial’ voice in American literature by the LA Times. A taut psychological noir in which a young woman’s obsession with a glamorous work colleague takes a sinister turn when she is implicated in a chilling crime, Eileen is a macabre read that revels in uncomfortable spaces.
As a film adaption, directed by William Oldroyd and starring Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway, hits cinemas, here’s our guide to the book, the author, her influences and accolades.
Celebrating Ann Schlee and Rhine Journey: 'a tale of female rage and agency'
Ann Schlee, the American-born writer who spent most of her life in England, died last month, aged 89. She was shortlisted for the 1981 Booker Prize for her masterpiece, Rhine Journey. Here, Lucy Scholes reflects on Schlee’s life and body of work, which is now resonating with a much younger generation of readers.
I’d love to see a lit fiction hub on Substack. Most fiction here is speculative, but how about literary? Any chance you might start doing more to create a lit fiction writer community here? I’d be the first to subscribe :)
"Prophet Song" (please click more and read the passage) by Paul Lynch won the Booker prize last week. He is a fine writer. And is a fine writer in this book, though I find his writing Superior in Red sky Morning where the prose blew me away. I believe the book won because it's an excellent book, but more because it's timely.
"She stands in line before the Camac Bridge waiting for the ID check, watching the people come and go across no-man’s land with wheelbarrows and trolleys and baggage, the rebels are demanding to search the merchandise of the people returning from the regime’s side, everything has to be unpacked, an elderly woman with jet black hair throws up her hands and begins to shout at two rebels who insist at her bag, she won’t let go until a soldier tears the bag from her hands and a chicken comes feathering out while the woman flaps after it along the road.
Eilish holds out her ID to eyes hidden behind sunglasses, a toneless voice asking why she is crossing, the sound of a warplane overhead. She reads the sign hung on the traffic lights warning of snipers and moves into hurry as she crosses the bridge, looking ahead to the windows of the tower block watching down from the far junction, this feeling of standing before some authority that declares life and death by fiat."
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