Booker Prize shortlist announced after judges' 'tussle' — SkimNews
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- The Booker Prize judging panel, chaired by Dame Mary Beard, selected six finalists from the longlist after a process judges called "a tussle," with seven longlisted books cut, including Emma Cline's Switzy that critic Giles Coren had called "a nailed-on Booker winner."
- Past winners Marlon James (The Disappearers) and Douglas Stuart (John of John) are shortlisted alongside Elizabeth Strout, M John Harrison, Luke Kennard, and debut novelist Rebecca Perry for May We Feed the King.
- M John Harrison, 81, would become the oldest Booker winner ever if The End of Everything — described by judges as readable as "a thriller, a mystery, a satire, a dystopia, a road novel" — takes the prize.
- Judge Jarvis Cocker said he joined one deliberation from a hotel room in Australia at 02:00 local time wearing a towelling robe while on tour with Pulp, comparing the panel to "being in a band."
- Judge Patricia Lockwood said she discovered she was "bossier than I believed myself to be," including "tossing books across the room" during arguments; fellow judge Raymond Antrobus said the chosen books "cannot be replicated by artificial intelligence."
- The winner receives £50,000 and will be announced on 9 November in London on a special edition of BBC Radio 4's Front Row; Beard responded to Coren's "I'll eat Mary Beard" dare by saying she's "going to get the cooker prepared."
Why it matters: Seven longlisted books — including a critic's pick for frontrunner — were cut, meaning the final six reflect deep judicial disagreement rather than consensus, and at 81 Harrison's potential win would set a new age record for the £50,000 prize, the most prestigious in English-language fiction.
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