The 2021 Booker Prize longlist combines dazzling debuts with accessibility and diversity

It’s 11:59pm on 26 July, and I’m sitting, refreshing my phone again and again, waiting. The clock ticks over, and there they are in front of me, the 13 nominees for the 2021 Booker Prize. 

I’m not alone: this list is hotly anticipated by many. Predictions fly around the internet throughout the year, and when the list is released, there are always surprises. The 2021 longlist does not break that trend.

The Booker Prize is so eagerly anticipated because it is one of the most prestigious awards an author can win. It takes place annually and is covered worldwide. Winning the award usually results in the book gaining huge traction and sales rocketing. The 2020 winner, Shuggie Bain, has now sold over 500,000 copies, despite it flying under the radar prior to the prize.

It is likely the 2021 winner faces similar prospects, but you shouldn’t wait until then to explore the longlist. There’s such a variety of novels, and there is bound to be something that intrigues every reader.

It seems the judges have stepped away from books that people find difficult to engage with, and instead have picked stories that readers can really sink their teeth into 

The longlist features a diverse group of authors. There are a number of former nominees, including 1989 winner Kazuo Ishiguro for his new novel Klara and the Sun, a story told through the eyes of an AI friend, and 2018 nominee and Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Powers’ Bewilderment, which follows a widowed father and his search to cure his troubled son. 

Other past nominees include Damon Galgut’s The Promise, a look at generational views on race, and Sunjeev Sahota’s China Room, focusing on identity from 1920s Punjab to 1990s rural England. 

The inclusion of such novels never provides too much shock, and it’s always good to see them on the list, however it is the undiscovered authors that truly provide the most excitement for me. Despite publishing three novels prior to A Town Called Solace, I cannot wait to get a copy of Mary Lawson’s nominated novel following a small town and the way the lives of the people that live there intertwine. It sounds intriguing and uplifting, and knowing that if I love it, I can access her backlist, is even better. 

I have had such good experiences with debut novels that have been nominated for the prize, and it is thrilling to discover brand new authors

Debut author Nathan Harris’ The Sweetness of Water, selected for Oprah’s Book Club, is another of the nominees I will definitely try to read. I have had such good experiences with debut novels that have been nominated for the prize, and it is thrilling to discover brand new authors.

It is worth keeping an eye on Patricia Lockwood, and her novel, No One Is Talking About This, an insight into the age of scrolling we live in, that could become the first winner of both the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Booker Prize. 

The longlist is completed with

• An Island by Karen Jennings
• A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam
• Second Place by Rachel Cusk
• The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed
• Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
• Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford.

As with all awards, there are a few notable absences. One book many thought would make the longlist is Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You following her 2018 nomination for Normal People. I love Rooney’s work and cannot wait to get into her new novel, but as it is yet to be published it is difficult to say whether it deserved a spot on the list.

It is instead Torrey Peters’s Detransition Baby that I would have loved to see on the list. The debut novel explores feelings around gender and motherhood, sparking conversation and highlighting difficulties faced by the transgender community. I feel the inclusion of such a story is so important, and would have helped it reach an even wider audience than it already has.

Despite this, I think overall the longlist this year is accessible and attractive. It seems the judges have stepped away from books that people find difficult to engage with, and instead have picked stories that readers can really sink their teeth into. 

Following the Booker Prize is really a lot of fun, and there is nothing better than exploring new stories from authors at the top of their field. The shortlist will be announced on 14 September, with the winning book declared on 3 November, but until then, there is plenty of time to get your hands on some of the nominated books, and I highly recommend that you do.