Embed from Getty Images
What type of book should make the Man Booker Prize (2018) shortlist?
The longlist for the Man Booker Prize this year includes thirteen books: Washington Black, Warlight, The Long Take, Normal People, The Water Cure, Everything Under, From a Low and Quiet Sea, In Our Mad Furious City, The Overstory, Snap, The Mad City and Sabrina. The shortlist for the British book prize will be revealed on September 20, 2018 and in my outlook, the books which should make the shortlist are books which have an element of romance about them or are books which are pieces of fiction based during a particular time in the past; I think those books clearly outshine the others in this year’s selections for the longlist.
Consider Normal People by Sally Rooney, for example, which has a romantic story: the book is about two people who attend Trinity College Dublin (in Ireland); one used to be an admired figure in football at school, whilst the other was a person with an uncommunicative nature. However, at college, the situation turns around for the two: the boy becomes a reserved person, whilst the girl becomes sure of oneself in a new recreational setup and the romance which eventually occasionally transpires between the two is fractured but shocking; it is a romance which holds an entertaining value.
Also, consider Warlight by Michael Ondaatje which is based in 1945 -the year in which the Second World War ended. In the book, two children are looked after by a person called The Moth who the children think is a villain; The Moth has a bunch of friends who strangely want to teach and also keep the children safe from harm. The book fictionally puts the spotlight on people living in the British capital in 1945 and in doing so, mixes history with a great story; it is a piece of fiction which helps to nicely visualize what life had some possibilities to be like a very long time ago.