The End of Everything by M John Harrison<\/p>\n
An unexplained catastrophe, and the arrival of mysterious alien beings, have turned British society upside down – and a man and his elderly aunt muddle through on the Kent coast. It’s the author’s first Booker nomination, and he’d be the oldest ever winner at 81.<\/p>\n
The judges said: “The End of Everything can be read as a thriller, a mystery, a satire, a dystopia, a road novel, a work of realism. The landscape may be bleak, the catastrophe may be immersive, yet there still were moments we found ourselves laughing aloud.”<\/p>\n
The Disappearers by Marlon James<\/p>\n
This epic, visceral story revolves around a violent attack on eight gay men who had gathered to rehearse a queer play in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1988, and its aftermath. The New York Times called it “a masterpiece, the novel of the decade and possibly of the century thus far”.<\/p>\n
The judges said: “A Jamaican epic from one of the most impactful Caribbean novelists today; readers will love the shifting register of the dialogue and poetic phrasings, often pierced through with sharp, double-edged humour.”<\/p>\n
Black Bag by Luke Kennard<\/p>\n
An out-of work actor gets a new role – being locked in a black bag during psychology lectures for an entire term as a professor’s experiment. The story unfolds into a humorous and poignant satire that makes sharp observations about the state of modern masculinity and creative life.<\/p>\n
The judges said: “In a wonderfully quirky campus novel, Kennard combines an absurd experiment with a moving story about human frailty, passion, confusion and identity. There’s something for everyone here.”<\/p>\n
May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry<\/p>\n
A modern-day museum curator is commissioned to recreate a past scene in a historic palace, and becomes immersed in the world of the young, reluctant king whose life she uncovers. It is the debut novel by Perry, who is also a poet and a former competitive trampolinist.<\/p>\n
The judges said: “An affecting and lush jewel of a novel that moves between our present-day world to a medieval court and unsettles the idea that there’s ever one universal historical truth.”<\/p>\n
The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout<\/p>\n
Strout, a former Pulitzer Prize winner and double Booker nominee, tells the story of a high school history teacher in his 50s who feels adrift in modern America. When a secret emerges, he must face big questions about his relationships and life choices.<\/p>\n
The judges said: “A novel that engages with the deeply divisive politics of present-day America, without itself becoming divisive. This is the kind of book we need now: a calm antidote to contemporary events.”<\/p>\n
John of John by Douglas Stuart<\/p>\n
The third novel by Stuart is about a fashion student who is drawn back to his home in a small, religious community in the Outer Hebrides in the mid-1990s. He and his father both nurse secrets. And both are called John.<\/p>\n
The judges said: “A rich and moving novel about a father and son who live on a remote Scottish island in the 1990s, where small-town secrets and buried shame reverberate to surprising, devastating and even joyous effect.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The End of Everything by M John Harrison An unexplained catastrophe, and the arrival of mysterious alien beings,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":779605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-779604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}