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In the world of the Booker Prizes this week: Read our exclusive Q&As with the International Booker Prize longlistees, discover our April Monthly Spotlight, and meet our Reading Challenge Ambassadors
Read our interviews with the International Booker Prize 2024 longlistees
In just three day’s time, on Tuesday, April 9 at 2pm (BST), the shortlist for the International Booker Prize 2024 will be announced, with the 13 longlisted titles whittled down to a final six. But before the big reveal, we’d love you to join us in discovering more about the longlisted authors and translators.
In a series of interviews, the longlistees share their thoughts on being nominated for this year’s prize. They discuss how, as authors and translators, they worked together on the English editions of their titles – and tell us about the influential books that have left a lasting impact on their lives and careers.
Discover our April Monthly Spotlight: Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Throughout April, we’re celebrating our latest Monthly Spotlight – Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black, which tells of the astonishing adventures of ‘Wash’ Black, whose escape from the brutal cane plantations of Barbados was only the beginning of his extraordinary journey.
NPR described it as ‘a wonder of an adventure story,’ a novel ‘powered by the helium of fantasy, but also by the tender sensibility of its aspiring young hero’. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2018, among other awards, and won the Scotiabank Giller Prize. The New York Times and Barack Obama (no less) selected the novel as one of the best books of 2018. A TV adaptation, from Hulu/Disney, starring Sterling K Brown and co-produced by Edugyan, is slated for release in late 2024.
On our Monthly Spotlight page, you can read an exclusive interview with the author herself, where Edugyan discusses her research for Washington Black and the books that have influenced her as a writer. You can also read an extract from the novel, explore our detailed reading guide, and enter our competition to win a copy of the book and a Booker Prize tote bag.
Meet our International Booker Prize Reading Challenge Ambassadors
Recently, we launched the International Booker Prize 2024 Reading Challenge, a self-guided reading challenge that encourages readers around the world to explore the 2024 longlist. As part of the challenge, we also invited a selection of independent booksellers and librarians in the UK and Ireland to participate, all of whom play a vital role in encouraging their communities to read great fiction.
Here, we speak to the booksellers and librarians chosen as our Ambassadors. They tell us what most excites them about the 2024 longlist and about sharing the Reading Challenge with their customers, the vital importance of translated fiction, and why their bookstores and libraries offer so much more than simply books.
Which books from the longlist have you read, and loved, so far? What are your predictions for the shortlist? Let us know in the comments below.
Fantabulous = Fantastic + Fabulous.
Quite.
Indeed.
Period.