Longlist complete, Leila Mottley honored

The Booker Prize published its long list of 13 books, and authors honored all ages and walks of life, working across many genres to shape the imaginary worlds of their novels. “Over the past seven months or so, we have read and discussed 169 works of fiction, all written in English, by authors and on subjects from around the world,” wrote Neil MacGregor, 2022 Booker Prize judges chair, in a statement. The “challenging, stimulating, surprising, nurturing” books selected “expand and exploit” the possibilities of language to give us great reads, he said. Academic and broadcaster Shahidha Bari, historian Helen Castor and writers Mr. John Harrison and Alain Mabanckou joined MacGregor on the judging panel.

The list contains the youngest and oldest writers to ever be nominated for the award. Leila Mottley, 20, is nominated for her debut, Crawl – written when the author was 17 – inspired by a real case of cops sexually abusing a young woman in Oakland. Alan Garner is an 87-year-old known for his award-winning 1967 novel The owl service. He is shortlisted for Molasses walker, an adventure story about an unlikely friendship between a bog man and a young boy. If Garner wins the award, he will be the oldest person to ever win. He will be 88 on the day of the ceremony.

Early novels by Maddie Mortimer, Selby Wynn Schwartz and Mottley made the cut, while NoViolet Bulawayo, Karen Joy Fowler, Graeme Macrae Burnet and Elizabeth Strout have all made the list before. by Claire Keegan Little things like these is the shortest book ever recognized, at 116 pages. The shortlist will be announced on September 6. See the full list below.

The long list of the Booker Prize 2022
Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
Trust by Hernan Diaz
Trees by Percival Everett
Stand by Karen Joy Fowler
Molasses walker by Alan Garner
The seven moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
Little things like these by Claire Kegan
Case study by Graeme Macrae Burnet
The colony by Audrey Magee
Maps of our spectacular bodies by Maddie Mortimer
Crawl by Leila Mottley
After Sappho by Selby Lynn Schwartz
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout