The shortlist for this year's International Booker Prize has been announced. You can watch this video where I watch the announcement while discussing the overall list and each book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lZND1rC6uU
I have big mixed feelings about this group of titles. I just finished reading “At Night All Blood is Black” by David Diop and think it's an incredibly powerful story about the savagery of war and how it can rob soldiers of their humanity. “The Employees” by Olga Ravn is such an inventive sci-fi novel both in how it's constructed and the story it evokes about what it means to be human. The short stories in “The Dangers of Smoking in Bed” are quite inventive but rely too much on gimmicks and twists which end most of the stories. I appreciated its imaginative invocation of the supernatural but, on the whole, it didn't entirely work for me.
Most surprising to see here is “The War of the Poor” which is the most disappointing book I've read so far this year. I didn't feel it went into enough depth on the subject matter or the individual it focused on. I am really interested and eager to read both “In Memory of Memory” by Maria Stepanova and “When We Cease to Understand the World” by Benjamin Labatut. So I'm looking forward to getting to those over the next few weeks before the winner is announced on June 7th. I have to say I'm very disappointed the incredible novel “Minor Detail” by Adania Shibli isn't on this shortlist, but that's the way prize lists go!
Have you read any from this list? Are you eager to read any? Let me know your thoughts on any of these books or the list as a whole.
