The 2020 Booker Prize Shortlist
The literary awards season is upon us! It’s like the Oscars—but better—because it’s all about books! And we’re getting into the spirit by celebrating the six titles just selected for the 2020 Booker Prize shortlist—one of the leading literary awards in the English-speaking world. Four out of the six finalists are debut authors introducing us to new and diverse voices covering topics that range from climate change to racism and heartbreaking familial relationships. The official winner won’t be announced until November, which gives us even more time to read and re-read these outstanding works of fiction.
Real Life
Real Life
Hardcover
$21.99
$26.00
Real Life: A Novel
Brandon Taylor
Through the lens of higher academia, Brandon Taylor takes a look at race and queerness in this profound story of intimacy, loneliness, desire and trauma. A poignant coming-of-age debut that brilliantly captures the inner and outer struggles of an introverted, gay, Black graduate student, one that questions the real cost of overcoming private wounds. “Psychologically compelling, incisively satirical, told in a muted style that nevertheless accesses a full emotional range, this is a brilliant book, worthy of a wide audience.”—The Guardian
Real Life: A Novel
Brandon Taylor
Through the lens of higher academia, Brandon Taylor takes a look at race and queerness in this profound story of intimacy, loneliness, desire and trauma. A poignant coming-of-age debut that brilliantly captures the inner and outer struggles of an introverted, gay, Black graduate student, one that questions the real cost of overcoming private wounds. “Psychologically compelling, incisively satirical, told in a muted style that nevertheless accesses a full emotional range, this is a brilliant book, worthy of a wide audience.”—The Guardian
The Shadow King: A Novel
The Shadow King: A Novel
In Stock Online
Paperback $17.95
The Shadow King: A Novel
Maaza Mengiste
Haunting, breathtaking and brutal, Maaza Mengiste crafts a fierce, indelible exploration of what it means to be a woman at war in this gripping tale set during Mussolini’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia. This novel has made its way to the top of several ‘best books’ lists and has been praised for its particular focus and perspective on a historical moment left out of the history books. “The Shadow King is a beautiful and devastating work; of women holding together a world ripping itself apart. They will slip into your dreams and overtake your memories.”—Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf
The Shadow King: A Novel
Maaza Mengiste
Haunting, breathtaking and brutal, Maaza Mengiste crafts a fierce, indelible exploration of what it means to be a woman at war in this gripping tale set during Mussolini’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia. This novel has made its way to the top of several ‘best books’ lists and has been praised for its particular focus and perspective on a historical moment left out of the history books. “The Shadow King is a beautiful and devastating work; of women holding together a world ripping itself apart. They will slip into your dreams and overtake your memories.”—Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf
The New Wilderness
The New Wilderness
By Diane Cook
In Stock Online
Hardcover $27.99
The New Wilderness
Diane Cook
In a world ravaged by climate change and a search for a new way of life, Diane Cook paints a picture of a mother’s love pitted against the forces of nature. “This manages to be a speculative novel about the future and a well-researched tale about living primitively… More than timely, the novel feels timeless, solid, like a forgotten classic recently resurfaced—a brutal, beguiling fairy tale about humanity. But at its core, The New Wilderness is really about motherhood, and about the world we make (or unmake) for our children.”—The Washington Post
The New Wilderness
Diane Cook
In a world ravaged by climate change and a search for a new way of life, Diane Cook paints a picture of a mother’s love pitted against the forces of nature. “This manages to be a speculative novel about the future and a well-researched tale about living primitively… More than timely, the novel feels timeless, solid, like a forgotten classic recently resurfaced—a brutal, beguiling fairy tale about humanity. But at its core, The New Wilderness is really about motherhood, and about the world we make (or unmake) for our children.”—The Washington Post
Shuggie Bain (Booker Prize Winner)
Shuggie Bain (Booker Prize Winner)
In Stock Online
Hardcover $27.00
Shuggie Bain
Douglas Stuart
A working-class mother and son in 1980s Glasgow grapple with addiction, sexuality and love in Douglas Stuart’s blistering and heartrending debut. Stuart has a great love for his characters, evident in every word of this panoramic portrait of family and place, one where Shuggie and Agnes stay with you long after the story ends. “[B]lending the tragic with the funny, the unsparing with the tender, the compassionate with the excruciating… This overwhelmingly vivid novel is not just an accomplished debut. It also feels like a moving act of filial reverence.”—James Walton, New York Review of Books
Shuggie Bain
Douglas Stuart
A working-class mother and son in 1980s Glasgow grapple with addiction, sexuality and love in Douglas Stuart’s blistering and heartrending debut. Stuart has a great love for his characters, evident in every word of this panoramic portrait of family and place, one where Shuggie and Agnes stay with you long after the story ends. “[B]lending the tragic with the funny, the unsparing with the tender, the compassionate with the excruciating… This overwhelmingly vivid novel is not just an accomplished debut. It also feels like a moving act of filial reverence.”—James Walton, New York Review of Books
This Mournable Body (Nervous Conditions Trilogy #3)
This Mournable Body (Nervous Conditions Trilogy #3)
In Stock Online
Paperback $17.00
This Mournable Body
Tsitsi Dangarembga
A psychologically charged novel from Tsitsi Dangarembga (one of Zimbabwe’s most notable authors) that uses a woman’s journey to independence as a means to reveal how toxic colonialism and capitalism can be. Here, Dangarembga returns to the protagonist of her acclaimed first novel, Nervous Conditions, and examines how hope and potential can sour when caught in a never-ending struggle for survival. With great compassion, this “novel explores how race, gender, class, and age are at play in Zimbabwe, and the overwhelming strength of these forces in the face of even the most optimistic and ambitious women.”—Vanity Fair
This Mournable Body
Tsitsi Dangarembga
A psychologically charged novel from Tsitsi Dangarembga (one of Zimbabwe’s most notable authors) that uses a woman’s journey to independence as a means to reveal how toxic colonialism and capitalism can be. Here, Dangarembga returns to the protagonist of her acclaimed first novel, Nervous Conditions, and examines how hope and potential can sour when caught in a never-ending struggle for survival. With great compassion, this “novel explores how race, gender, class, and age are at play in Zimbabwe, and the overwhelming strength of these forces in the face of even the most optimistic and ambitious women.”—Vanity Fair
Burnt Sugar
Burnt Sugar
By Avni Doshi
Hardcover $26.00
Burnt Sugar: A Novel
Avni Doshi
Avni Doshi mixes intense empathy with caustic wit in a mother-daughter story where memories are questioned, bonds are tested, and love isn’t always enough. A searing debut that explores shifting power dynamics and questions the subjective nature of truth. “Raw, wise and cuttingly funny on love and cruelty, marriage and motherhood, art and illness, and one woman’s fight for her sense of self. A courageous novel written in spare, gleaming sentences.”— Tishani Doshi, author of Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods
Burnt Sugar: A Novel
Avni Doshi
Avni Doshi mixes intense empathy with caustic wit in a mother-daughter story where memories are questioned, bonds are tested, and love isn’t always enough. A searing debut that explores shifting power dynamics and questions the subjective nature of truth. “Raw, wise and cuttingly funny on love and cruelty, marriage and motherhood, art and illness, and one woman’s fight for her sense of self. A courageous novel written in spare, gleaming sentences.”— Tishani Doshi, author of Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods