Booker Prize 2019

Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other weaves together the lives of twelve interconnected characters, mostly Black British women, across generations. Written in a vibrant, poetic prose that defies conventional punctuation, the novel captures multiplicity without fragmentation. Evaristo explores identity, feminism, sexuality, and history with warmth and wit. Each voice feels distinct yet part of a larger social tapestry. The book celebrates complexity while confronting exclusion and inequality. It is joyful, expansive, and quietly radical.

Margaret Atwood returns to the world of Gilead with The Testaments, a sequel that expands and complicates the legacy of The Handmaid’s Tale. Told through three distinct voices, the novel explores power, resistance, and the cracks within authoritarian systems. Atwood reveals how regimes fall not only through rebellion, but through internal corruption. The book balances suspense with political insight, offering moments of dark humour alongside moral reckoning. It deepens the mythology of Gilead while interrogating the costs of survival. A compelling and sharply observed continuation.

Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport is a formally audacious novel composed largely of a single, flowing sentence. The book inhabits the consciousness of an Ohio housewife as she reflects on family, politics, fear, and American life. Ellmann captures the relentlessness of thought, anxiety, and love with astonishing precision. Beneath its humour lies a sharp critique of gun culture, environmental collapse, and misogyny. The novel demands patience but rewards immersion. It is overwhelming, exhilarating, and unlike anything else.

Max Porter’s Lanny blends folklore, realism, and experimental typography to tell the story of a boy and his community. The novel captures the collective voice of a village, where fear and myth coexist with tenderness. Porter explores childhood, imagination, and moral panic. The figure of Dead Papa Toothwort gives the book its eerie pulse. Despite its darkness, the novel holds deep empathy. A daring and emotionally rich work.

Elif Shafak’s novel opens with the final moments of a murdered woman’s consciousness, unfolding into a story of friendship and survival in Istanbul. Through memories triggered by taste and sensation, Shafak reconstructs a life shaped by violence and resilience. The novel centres chosen family and marginalised lives with compassion. Shafak critiques social hypocrisy while affirming human connection. The tone balances sorrow with warmth. It is poignant, humane, and quietly hopeful.

Salman Rushdie’s Quichotte is a playful, layered novel inspired by Cervantes, set against the surreal backdrop of modern America. The story follows an unlikely romantic quest while interrogating media, addiction, racism, and identity. Rushdie blends satire, fantasy, and metafiction with characteristic exuberance. The novel’s ambition sometimes overwhelms its coherence, but its energy is infectious. At its core lies a tender meditation on loneliness and belief. It is chaotic, imaginative, and deeply contemporary.

Chigozie Obioma’s novel retells The Odyssey through Igbo cosmology, following a Nigerian poultry farmer navigating love and fate. Narrated by a chi — a personal spirit — the story blends myth with social realism. Obioma explores masculinity, class aspiration, and global inequality with lyrical intensity. The novel’s structure deepens its tragic momentum, illuminating the limits of individual will. It is emotionally powerful and culturally rich. A bold fusion of ancient form and contemporary critique.

Valeria Luiselli’s novel blends road trip, documentary, and archive to examine migration at the US–Mexico border. Following a family travelling west, the book gradually reveals the crisis of displaced children. Luiselli’s structure mirrors the act of witnessing, collecting fragments rather than answers. The prose is measured and compassionate, resisting spectacle. The novel insists on ethical attention and listening. It is formally ambitious and morally urgent.

Oyinkan Braithwaite’s debut is a darkly comic thriller set in Lagos, where sisterly loyalty collides with moral horror. The narrator’s deadpan voice heightens the novel’s satirical edge. Braithwaite explores gender, beauty, and complicity within a fast-paced, tightly plotted narrative. The book skewers social expectations while remaining sharply entertaining. Its brevity amplifies its punch. A witty, unsettling take on love and violence.

Kevin Barry’s Night Boat to Tangier unfolds over a single night in a Spanish port, following two ageing Irish criminals waiting for news. Written in razor-sharp dialogue, the novel captures regret, friendship, and the weight of lost time. Barry’s language crackles with humour and melancholy. Beneath the banter lies profound grief and longing. The novel is brief but emotionally dense. A masterclass in voice and compression.

John Lanchester’s The Wall imagines a near-future Britain defined by climate catastrophe and exclusion. A literal wall protects the nation from rising seas and refugees, enforced by a generation tasked with guarding it. The novel explores guilt, inheritance, and moral responsibility with chilling restraint. Lanchester’s prose is spare and controlled, heightening the sense of inevitability. The book reads as both warning and allegory. Quietly devastating and timely.

Deborah Levy’s novel is a slippery, dreamlike meditation on memory, time, and political blindness. Centred on a historian who survives an accident in Berlin, the narrative folds past and present into each other. Levy plays with repetition and uncertainty, destabilising notions of truth. The novel probes masculinity, ideology, and self-deception. Its ambiguity invites rereading rather than resolution. A challenging, hypnotic work.

Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein reimagines Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for the age of AI and gender fluidity. Blending historical narrative with contemporary speculation, the novel interrogates consciousness, embodiment, and desire. Winterson’s voice is playful yet philosophical, moving easily between humour and seriousness. The book questions what it means to be human in a post-human future. Its ideas sometimes outpace its characters, but its ambition is exhilarating. A bold, speculative reinvention.