{"id":4271,"date":"2020-07-28T17:22:15","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T15:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress_test\/?p=4271"},"modified":"2020-07-28T17:22:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T15:22:15","slug":"booker-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/?p=4271","title":{"rendered":"Booker 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Literary awards stop not for this mean, increasingly unpredictable virus making lives miserable &#8211; and to various degrees, dependent upon circumstance. Here, then, providing a modicum of distraction, the just announced <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/thebookerprizes.com\/fiction\/2020\" target=\"_blank\">longlist for The Booker Prize 2020<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/book-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4278\" width=\"403\" height=\"302\"\/><figcaption>The Booker Prize 2020 longlist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>The New Wilderness&nbsp;<\/em>by Diane Cook&nbsp;(Oneworld Publications)<\/li><li><em>This Mournable Body<\/em>&nbsp;by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Faber &amp; Faber)<\/li><li><em>Burnt Sugar<\/em>&nbsp;by Avni Doshi (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)<\/li><li><em>Who They Was<\/em>&nbsp;by Gabriel Krauze (4<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Estate, HarperCollins)<\/li><li><em>The Mirror &amp; The Light<\/em>&nbsp;by Hilary Mantel (4<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Estate, HarperCollins)<\/li><li><em>Apeirogon<\/em>&nbsp;by Colum McCan (Bloomsbury Publishing)&nbsp;<\/li><li><em>The Shadow King<\/em>&nbsp;by Maaza Mengiste (Canongate Books)<\/li><li><em>Such a Fun Age<\/em>&nbsp;by Kiley Reid (Bloomsbury Circus, Bloomsbury Publishing)<\/li><li><em>Real Life<\/em>&nbsp;by Brandon Taylor (Originals, Daunt Books Publishing)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li><li><em>Redhead by The Side of The Road<\/em>&nbsp;by Anne Tyler (Chatto &amp; Windus, Vintage)<\/li><li><em>Shuggie Bain<\/em>&nbsp;by Douglas Stuart (Picador, Pan Macmillan)<\/li><li><em>Love and Other Thought Experiments<\/em>&nbsp;by Sophie Ward (Corsair, Little, Brown)<\/li><li><em>How Much of These Hills is Gold<\/em>&nbsp;by C Pam Zhang (Virago, Little, Brown)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I can only say that I have only read Mantel; and the daunting task of writing my thoughts on her remarkable work remains on <strong>my<\/strong><em> longlist<\/em> (of things to do)!  And, I can only say what I&#8217;ve said before, and that is: the United States has any number of major book awards (National, Pulitzer being foremost) why on earth the Brits <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2018\/feb\/02\/publishers-call-on-man-booker-prize-to-drop-american-authors\" target=\"_blank\">allowed them in the Booker a few years ago<\/a> I really don&#8217;t know.  Well of course one does &#8211; $$$!  In my opinion, it is becoming too top heavy stateside these days &#8211; no antipodean, only one resident (I think) of the African continent, none from southern Asia, or the Caribbean. In fact there are only three listed from the UK which means, the laws of probability being such as they are, one may very well end up with a shortlist without a British writer! I hear already the screams of &#8220;Scandal!&#8221; &#8211; but what would the Booker be without controversy? Rarely has there not been a loud gripe of some sort &#8211; in or out, sponsor, judge &#8230; What was it last year? Oh, I remember &#8211; against all the &#8220;unwritten&#8221; rules, it was <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2019\/oct\/15\/bernardine-evaristo-margaret-atwood-share-booker-prize-award\" target=\"_blank\">awarded jointly<\/a> to Bernadine Evaristo and Margaret Atwood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I will also say that I haven&#8217;t read Anne Tyler for donkey&#8217;s years, and she was a constant companion of &#8230; let me see&#8230; the third decade of my life. Can I read Tyler again without bemoaning my lost youth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The jury is diverse which is good, and I also note with delight that <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/thebookerprizes.com\/author\/margaret-busby-chair-0\" target=\"_blank\">Margaret Busby <\/a>leads it and <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/thebookerprizes.com\/author\/emily-wilson-0\" target=\"_blank\">Emily Wilson<\/a> is another of the judges. Of the latter I need say nought (see my never ending <a href=\"http:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/category\/my-odyssey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Odyssey project<\/a>!), but Busby reminds me of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Daughters_of_Africa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Daughters of Africa<\/a><\/em>, which I would like to read after all these years and then their is last year&#8217;s follow up anthology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The 2020 Booker Prize longlist announcement\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AYbYLL7lLbM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>The Booker Prize longlist July 28th 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Literary awards stop not for this mean, increasingly unpredictable virus making lives miserable &#8211; and to various degrees, dependent upon circumstance. Here, then, providing a modicum of distraction, the just announced longlist for The Booker Prize 2020: The New Wilderness&nbsp;by Diane Cook&nbsp;(Oneworld Publications) This Mournable Body&nbsp;by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Faber &amp; Faber) Burnt Sugar&nbsp;by Avni Doshi &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/?p=4271\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Booker 2020&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,6,23],"tags":[43,59,72,92],"class_list":["post-4271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-fiction","category-writers-2","tag-booker-prize","tag-emily-wilson","tag-hilary-mantel","tag-margaret-busby"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}