Your weekly edit
In the world of the Booker Prizes this week: Books to read if you're hooked on The Traitors; we revisit the Booker in the 1980s; plus, explore our reading guide to The Employees by Olga Ravn
Eight of the best Booker-nominated books for fans of The Traitors
With its gripping mix of seduction and strategic betrayal, BBC One’s The Traitors has viewers hooked around the world. Perhaps you’re drawn to the suspense of the round table, the camaraderie of the missions, or the merciless individuals who will stop at nothing to get ahead. But who says the fun has to end there?
This intoxicating brand of high-stakes drama isn’t confined to the screen – it pulses through the pages of many books, too, including plenty of those in the Booker Library.
The Booker in the 1980s: 10 novels that are well worth revisiting
The 1980s were a boom time for the Booker Prize. The decade gave us some of its most famous winners, from Midnight’s Children to The Remains of the Day. Literary fiction – and the sort of books the prize attracted – was more popular than ever, with writers like Martin Amis and Ian McEwan becoming household names.
If you’d like to discover more about one of the richest decades in Booker Prize history, John Self has selected 10 shortlisted books that are well worth reading (or re-reading), roughly 40 years later.
Reading guide: The Employees by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken
In The Employees, which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2021, Olga Ravn explores what it really means to be human, while questioning the logic of productivity and a life governed by work.
With the novel now adapted for the stage in a production at the Southbank Centre in London, we’re revisiting this thought-provoking book. Whether you’re new to The Employees or have read it and would like to explore it more deeply, here is our comprehensive guide, featuring insights from critics, our judges and the book’s author, as well as discussion points and suggestions for further reading.
Which books are on your TBR pile this weekend, readers? Let us know in the comments below…!
Just picked up a copy of 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang’s “The Vegetarian” which is short enough, albeit very dark I hear, to finish this weekend.
Just great 💕📚💕