Booker Prize 2023
The Booker Prize is a literary award for the best English novel published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The prize of 50,000 Euros is given to the winner, and each short-listed author gets a prize of 2,500 Euros.
This year, the six nominees were:
1. The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
The Bee Sting is a story of a family where something at some point went wrong. The father, Dickie, is spending his days in the forest, building a bunker in case of apocalypse, after his car business goes down. His wife, Imelda, is selling her jewelry to support the family after her husband lost his job. Cass, Dickie’s teenage daughter, has a drinking problem, and his 12-year-old son PJ is planning to run away from home. Can there still be a happy ending? The book will explore the possibility.
2. Western Lane by Chetna Maroo
This is the story of a little girl trying to find herself and her path in life. Gopi has been playing squash for as long as she can remember herself. After her mother dies, Gopi’s father puts the girl into a very intense training program, and squash becomes all she has. Gopi is slowly growing apart from her sisters, not seeing anything in her life except sports. But who is Gopi? And who does she want to be?
3. Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
Eilish Stack, a mother of four, opens her front door to see two police officers who came to speak to her husband. The Irish government is turning towards tyranny, and the society is slowly getting ruined. With her world collapsing in front of her eyes, Eilish finds herself stuck in what looks like an unsolvable situation, but she will do anything to keep her family together.
4. This Other Eden by Paul Harding
Historical events inspired Harding’s novel and tell the Honey family's story. In 1792, Benjamin Honey, formerly enslaved, came to Apple Island with his wife to build a family there. Over a hundred years later, his descendants are hit by “civilization.” The officials want to “cleanse” the island and decide to save only a light-skinned boy, while others will have to accept the authorities’ rules or leave.
5. If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
In 1979, due to political violence, Topper and Sanya decided to move to Miami. But what they thought would be a good decision turns out to be much harder than they expected. The American society does not welcome them as warmly as they thought. Their youngest son, Trelawny, is growing up in a society that doesn’t trust him and looks at him with suspicion, and their older son, Delano, is doing everything to secure a better future for his own children. The family has to go through many obstacles on their way to a happier life. Will the family be able to stay strong together, or will all the hardships be the last drop that will break it?
6. Study For Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
This novel is about a woman who moves to a different country to be her brother’s housekeeper after his wife left him. Soon after her arrival, a series of strange accidents occurs: a potato blight, a dog’s phantom pregnancy, a collective hysteria… The woman soon realizes that her new neighbors are looking at her suspiciously, not trusting a new member of their community, blaming her for their troubles. She is trying to hide herself by taking care of the house and her brother, who soon becomes ill.
This year's winner was Paul Lynch, the author of a dystopian novel, Prophet Song. Lynch is the fifth writer to win the Booker Prize.
Article By Mary Zakharova