2020 Booker Prize longlist

Apeirogon, Colum McCann (Ireland/USA) {currently available in UK and US}
Burnt Sugar, Avni Doshi (USA) {available in UK 30 July; I can't find a publication date in the US)
How Much of These Hills Is Gold, C Pam Zhang (USA) {currently available in UK and US}
Love and Other Thought Experiments, Sophie Ward (UK) {currently available in Uk; I can't find a publication date in the US}
The Mirror & The Light, Hilary Mantel (UK) {currently available in the UK and US}
This Mournable Body, Tsitisi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe) {currently available in the UK and US}
The New Wilderness, Diane Cook (USA) {available in the UK and US on 11 August}
Real Life, Brandon Taylor (USA) {currently available in the UK and US}
Redhead by the Side of the Road, Anne Tyler (USA) {currently available in the UK and US}
The Shadow King, Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia/USA) {currently available in the UK and US}
Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart (Scotland/USA) {currently available in the UK and US}
Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid (USA) {currently available in the UK and US}
Who They Was, Gabriel Krauze (UK) {available in the UK on 3 September; I can't find a publication date in the US}

Link: https://thebookerprizes.com/booker-prize/news/2020-booker-prize-longlist-announc...

Thanks for posting this! The only one I've read in The Mirror and the Light, though I think the first in that series, Wolf Hall, was the best of the trilogy.

I'm never one to read a whole list like this, but I did look at descriptions of most of them. I'm very interested in This Mournable Body, but bought the e book of Nervous Conditions which was the author's first book and involves the same character.

I also joined my library wait list for The Shadow King which sounds excellent.

>2 japaul22: You're welcome, Jennifer. I loved Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, so I'm eager to get started on The Mirror & the Light; I preordered my copy of it earlier this year.

I also own a copy of The Shadow King, as I enjoyed Maaza Mengiste's earlier novel Beneath the Lion's Gaze. I'll plan to read those books in August, along with two or three others, depending on what I can find in bookshops or libraries locally or in Philadelphia.

At a first glance I like this longlist a lot, and even though it's a US-centric list the descriptions of the début novels by Avni Doshi, C Pam Zhang, Brandon Taylor, Douglas Stuart and Kiley Reid are compelling.

Thanks for pulling this together, Darryl! I'm really interested in almost all the longlist contenders this year, though I'm sure I won't have time to read more than one or two (and even that is probably optimistic). But I'm following along anyway, because it's a neat field—lots of debut novels, for one thing.

>3 kidzdoc: I went in to work today and walked past Daunt Books and saw that they had a window display of Brandon Taylor's book.

I know I haven't been around for a while but am so delighted kidzdoc that you are still keeping us all on track. I have a bit more leisure time now so I do hope to really be able to tackle some of this long list. Interestingly this year I seem to have been able to source all of them from my local library - yippee!

The Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga, whose novel This Mournable Body was chosen for this year's Booker Prize longlist, was arrested in Harare, the country's capital, on Friday, in a crackdown against protesters who accuse the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa of corruption and widespread abuse.

The Guardian: Booker Prize longlisted author Tsitsi Dangarembga arrested in Zimbabwe

>4 lisapeet: You're welcome, Lisa. With the possible exception of Redhead by the Side of the Road the longlisted books all seem very interesting to me on a first glance. I will attempt in order to read the entire longlist by the end of the year, the shortlist before the prize ceremony in late October, and if possible the entire longlist by that time.

I've started reading The Shadow King, which is very good so far, and I now own five other longlisted books: The Mirror & the Light, Apeirogon, How Much of These Hills Is Gold, Real Life, and Shuggie Bain.

>5 Sakerfalcon: Excellent, Claire! I purchased the Kindle edition of Real Life earlier this week. I'll probably read it when I visit my parents later this month, along with The Shadow King, The Mirror & the Light, Shuggie Bain and How Much of These Hills Is Gold.

>6 alexdaw: Well done, Alex! I look forward to your thoughts about the longlisted novels. I'll order the novels that are or soon will be published in the UK and not in the US from The Book Depository later today or tomorrow.

I've read Such a Fun Age and really loved it, though more for the characters, plot, and themes than for the writing -- don't get me wrong, the writing was very good, but I typically think of the Booker as being more challenging writing. That said, I am glad this book was nominated because I think it is very timely and topical, and Reid's look at the intersection of race and socio-economics was super powerful.

Speaking of challenging writing, I'm currently reading The Mirror and the Light, but slowly, about 30 pages a day for the month of August. I loved both Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, and I expect this one to be equally as impressive.

I'm interested in reading The Shadow King, Apeirogan, How Much of These Hills is Gold, Real Life, and The New Wilderness. I'll wait to see what makes the shortlist before considering the others.

>2 japaul22: I believe there is a second book between Nervous Conditions and This Mournable Body, called The Book of Not.

>8 kidzdoc: Darryl, how funny is it that we both have the exact same books from the list? Except for The Shadow King, which is the one out of all the rest that I intend to library up.

I'm also waiting to see if the great galley gods give me an e-galley of The New Wilderness, which I'd like to read.