2021 Booker Prize Shortlist

The Promise

“I just finished and loved this remarkable Booker Prize winning novel from South African author Dalmon Galgut. On her deathbed, Rachel Swart makes her husband promise that he will give their family's Black maid, Salome, the home on their family farm in which she has resided for decades. When this promise is repeatedly broken, the effects on the surviving three children are impossible to deny. Told through constantly flowing perspectives, (I'm still blown away by how skillfully Galgut does this) and beautiful, poetic language, this is the reckoning of one family and the country they call home.”

Samantha, A Great Good Place for Books

Great Circle

“Like so many big, statement-making novels, Maggie Shipstead's Great Circle is an inviting, ambitious, and commodious work. But unlike so many of them, Great Circle makes the statement without dragging across its page count. It gallops, in fact, in its telling of Marian Graves's triumphant and ill-fated trek across the globe and of the Hollywood starlet, decades later, charged with playing her on screen. And it does so with verve and an infectious volley of voice that I couldn't get out of my head. It's the kind of story you wish would never end. Great Circle is as heart-aching as it is profound in what it says about life's great journeys, our shared histories, and freedom!”

Uriel, BookPeople

No One Is Talking About This

“Patricia Lackwood's Priestdaddy is one of my favorite memoirs of all time, so I knew I just HAD to get my hands on her debut novel. As expected it's weird and quirky as hell, a tad inappropriate but makes you literally LOL. She creates a plot through a constellation of nebulous observations and witticisms that, as I said, is expected from her. And the narrator's voice drips with that certain sarcasm that is perfectly in line with Lockwood's. What I did NOT expect, however, is for these drifting sentiments and sediments to suddenly unify as one sharp needle point at the book's climax and rip out my still-beating heart. The audacity of Patricia Lockwood! After I was done ugly crying, I was able to take a step back and truly appreciate how marvelous this book really is. Do yourself a favor and just read it.”

Conner, BookBar

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE • A young man journeys into Sri Lanka’s war-torn north in this searing novel of longing, loss, and the legacy of war from the author of The Story of a Brief Marriage.
 
“A novel of tragic power and uncommon beauty.”—Anthony Marra
“One of the most individual minds of their generation.”—Financial Times

SHORTLISTED... Read more »

Bewilderment

“An homage to the heartbreaking Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, this intimate story of a grieving father and his troubled son is an intelligent and touching story of tragedy and hope.”

Genevieve, A Great Good Place for Books

BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • Based on a true event, this novel is “a blues song cut straight from the heart ... about the unjust death of an innocent Black man caught up in a corrupt system. The full life of Mahmood Mattan, the last man executed in Cardiff for a crime he was exonerated for forty years later [is] brought alive with subtle artistry and... Read more »