The International Booker Prize 2023 Shortlist Reaction
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 เม.ย. 2023
- The shortlist for the 2023 International Booker Prize is here! Here are my reactions to the six books that made the cut (and the ones that didn't). Expand for more information. 👇
Links 💻
The International Booker Site: thebookerprizes.com/the-booke...
Further Viewing 🎥
Longlist Reaction: • The International Book...
Last Year’s Winner Reaction: • Winner Reaction for th...
The Shortlist 📚
Still Born, Guadalupe Nettel (translated by Rosalind Harvey)
Standing Heavy. GauZ’ (translated by Frank Wynne)
Time Shelter, Georgi Gospodinov (translated by Angela Rodel)
The Gospel According to the New World, Maryse Condé (translated by Richard Philcox)
Whale, Cheon Myeong-kwan (translated by Chi-Young Kim)
Boulder, Eva Baltasar (translated by Julia Sanches)
Titles From the Longlist That Didn’t Make It 📕
Ninth Building, You Jingzhi (translated by Jeremy Tiang)
A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding, Amanda Svensson (translated by Nichola Smalley)
Pyre, Perumal Murugan (translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan)
While We Were Dreaming, Clemens Meyer (translated by Katy Derbyshire)
The Birthday Party, Laurent Mauvignier (translated by Daniel Levin Becker)
Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv, Andrey Kurkov (translated by Reuben Woolley)
Is Mother Dead, Vigdis Hjorth (translated by Charlotte Barslund)
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Heck yeah on the library requests !!!
I was so surprised and pleased!
I put Standing Heavy on hold at the library and was pleasantly surprised to see it come in yesterday, as I didn't think it was out in the US yet. I'm very excited for Time Shelter and Boulder; less so for Gospel and Whale. I'll likely try Still Born, Pyre, Is Mother Dead, The Birthday Party and A System So Magnificent It is Blinding, too.
I look forward to your thoughts on whichever books you get to!
Whale, Time Shelter & Still Born are the 3 I’ve had my 👁️ on- read the first page of the latter & immediately ordered it from 🇬🇧 ( as you mentioned 😆) . Hope all is well & appreciate the video 📖🪱💚
Thank you for watching! There are definitely interesting books on this list.
I got Time Shelter from my public library and LOVED it!! Rooting for Gospodinov.
I put in another request for my library to purchase Time Shelter. Fingers crossed!
I'm very happy for Eva Baltasar.
I didn't read her novels yet, but it was very successful (in Cataluña at first and then in the rest of Spain) and it's nice to watch a spanish write getting some international attention (and she is the first getting in the booker list writing in catalan)
I just finished Boulder this morning and liked it a lot.
It has been very difficult to get hold of any international booker longlist here, I have ordered Time Shelter but it is taking weeks to arrive. It was the one that stood out to me.
It does frequently take a long time to get a book from the UK. You would think things would be faster!
The exclusion of THE BIRTHDAY PARTY is, as I keep thinking about it in the days since the shortlist announcement, outrageous. It’s an extraordinary work-a brilliant narrative, an artful page-turner, an incredible novel about contemporary France, and has been rightly called a fusion of Virginia Woolf and Patricia Highsmith. It is. A huge oversight.
I've heard some disappointment that Birthday Party didn't make it. A fusion between Woolf and Highsmith sounds fascinating.
@@SupposedlyFun Yeah, one BookTuber after another has chided the jury for the gross oversight, especially in light of the sense that the Maryse Conde is actually not very good at all. You should read it!
To be fair, in the first two years i liked way more two of the books on the long list thatn the actual winners
I have read Pyre, the Birthday Party and I’m just finishing up Time Shelter. Pyre was horrifying and made me cry but it’s safe to say I loved it. The Birthday Party was scary, slow moving but fantastic. Time Shelter, I was going to say I didn’t love primarily because I think some of the references to Bulgaria have gone straight over my head but as I’m moving into the last 50 pages, my opinion has changed. It took me some time to get into it. But, so far, the longlist has not led me astray.
I ordered Boulder and Standing Heavy because they’re short enough to squeeze in before the final selection. I also ordered Whale because of the reaction I noticed from the viewers when announcing the shortlist. So many supporters for Whale put that on my radar. I will be purchasing Still Born in the summer so I can get my hands on that beautiful cover. I refuse to get the plain blue edition. It will be funny if Gospel wins since that’ll be the last one standing for me and I’ll feel compelled to read it. But something tells me it will win.
There are still a couple on the longlist that have drawn me. This is my absolute favorite book award for the same reasons you have stated. It steers my reading for a portion of the year. I love pushing myself to read the unfamiliar that way. Very rewarding. 😊
I get that the blue cover is a publisher signature but I find it so deeply unappealing, so I support the decision to wait for the American edition of Still Born. It is definitely a fascinating longlist. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the ones you've read!
I ADORED Whale. It's my choice to win, even though it's a long stretch!
We'll see what happens!
When I get to them I have on my shelves or have orderedStanding Heavy , Time Shelter , Ninth Building, Pyre, The Birthday Party, A System, So Magnificent it’s Blinding. I think you are spot on about Maryse Condre a sentimental favorite for sure. I think you may want to try Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov it’s really good. I haven’t read The Hendrix live book . Speaking of books I haven’t read Permafrost by Eva Baltasar sounds really good and I plan on getting it from the library. Glad to see you made it home
Thank you for the recommendations and for sharing your thoughts. It's definitely good to be home again.
The only book I have read is The Gospel According to the New World. I really enjoyed it. It's an interesting take on spiritually. I would like to see it win.
It definitely feels like the frontrunner to me. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.
@@SupposedlyFun I definitely think this possibly being her last book makes it a front-runner. Then you have to remember last year I picked Treacle Walker because he would have been the oldest winner and it was his birthday for the Booker Prize. That didn't happen. So don't get any money on my predictions.
@@annegibson6072 I could say the same thing about my predictions. 🤪
I look forward to the US release of Still Born. I am childless by choice and it was not an easy decision to make. Thanks for another great video. Also, I love your T-shirt!! Sending warm vibes to you, Joel, and Jamie. 🐾❤️
It (unfortunately) felt like an important time to wear the t-shirt. Thank you for the warm wishes. ❤️
I was also most excited for Still Born and Boulder.
Joel picked up the library books for me, so I have Boulder on hand!
I have only read Boulder, and it really resonated with me! I really want to get to Time Shelter, but as I am not a Proust fan, I’m a little nervous now.
I admit I was a little less excited about Time Shelter when I realized he's the Proust from the east they were referring to. I mentioned Proust in my video about books I'll likely never read. 😅
Boulder is outstanding. It focus on how a woman who is not the biological mother feels. It's very well-written and beautiful. I love it.
I have the copy from the library and I can't wait to start!
Very much liked seeing the books that most drew your attention, so it will be interesting to see if they live up to your antivipation. it seems like the list succeeded at getting a really varied selection! Boulder has been driving so much great discussion from people I've seen read it on book tube so far. Time Shelter seems most interesting of those that made it though.
I also only had previous exposure to Perumal Murugan, and would have liked to see Pyre make it. I read Story of a Goat and really got a lot out of it, though there was obvious political subtext I knew was there but could fully get (perhaps a fault of the transltor, not providing footnotes for context) that likely made it even more.
Conversation around Boulder has definitely made me even more interested in reading it. I'm glad my library got a copy! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
i've read all of the longlist except for birthday party. i don't really like this shortlist - standing heavy and the gospel were such outliers imo. -- i liked whale and still born the most. i think you'll really enjoy still born!! it was lovely. whale was really fantastical, fairy tale esque. it's a lot of fun but i'm not sure if you'll love it. i did not like standing heavy 🙈 excited to hear what you think of boulder and pyre
I think I'm going to wait for the US release of Still Born even though I've had some really interesting feedback on it. Hopefully the urgency to read it will still be there come August! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Pyre pushed every single one of my buttons about fairness and anti-discrimination in the world. It enraged me. Perhaps that was part of the goal, but I was so livid, I got rid of the book the next day. (Your mileage may vary, as you like to say.)
I’ve got Boulder on hold at the library and should get it soon. That cover of Still Born really grabbed me, but I think I will not purchase it and get it instead from the library or Scribd. Nothing else stands out as a purchase from this list, particularly having been burned so badly by Pyre. Ugh. Pun definitely not intended. 🤦♀️
Nice to see your bookshelves again!
It's very difficult when a book hits your triggers like that. Some of the feedback I've gotten on Pyre is that it's devastating, so I'm really bracing myself since I'm not exactly in a devastating reads frame of mind at the moment. Thanks for the feedback!
Thanks, Greg. I've been able to read three of these, and I'll keep going. I read "Pyre" and while I liked it I predicted that it would not make the shortlist. I predicted that "Time Shelter" would make the shortlist, and I am really thrilled that "Whale" made it as well. Right now I think "Time Shelter" is the frontrunner, but I have a lot of reading to do.
I enjoyed "Whale" more but "Time Shelter" is a better book. And yes, you should read "Whale." 🙂
Thanks for the feedback on the titles you have read. Lots of people seem excited about Time Shelter.
I missed this part, which author is the Proust of the east? Right up my alley.
Georgi Gospodinov, the author of Time Shelter.
I thought Still Born was fantastic. The only other I've read thus far is Boulder, which was sort of the same idea but done differently. It was beautifully written as well, but I thought Still Born handled it in a more nuanced way.
I'm really looking forward to both. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Glad you all made it back home safely!!! 🦴🐕🐾🥰
It feels good to be back!