The shortlist for the Booker Prize 2023 has been announced by the Chair of judges, Esi Edugyan, at an event held at the newly reopened National Portrait Gallery in London and livestreamed to readers around the world.
None of the six authors has previously been shortlisted for the prize. There are two debuts on the shortlist; there is one British, one Canadian, two Irish and two American authors. Although full of hope, humour and humanity, the books address many of 2023’s most pressing concerns: climate change, immigration, financial hardship, the persecution of minorities, political extremism and the erosion of personal freedoms. They feature characters in search of peace and belonging or lamenting lost loves. There are books that are grounded in modern reality, that shed light on shameful episodes in history and which imagine a terrifying future.
The 2023 winner will be announced on Sunday 26 November in an award ceremony held at Old Billingsgate. The announcement will also be livestreamed online via the Booker Prizes YouTube channel.
The Shortlist
- Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein (Granta Books)
- If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery (4th Estate)
- This Other Eden by Paul Harding (Hutchinson Heinemann)
- Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (Oneworld)
- Western Lane by Chetna Maroo (Picador)
- The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (Hamish Hamilton)
What the judges said
The 2023 judging panel is chaired by twice-shortlisted novelist Esi Edugyan. She is joined by actor, writer and director Adjoa Andoh; poet, lecturer, editor and critic *Mary Jean Chan*; author and professor James Shapiro; and actor and writer Robert Webb.
Esi Edugyan, Chair of the 2023 judges, says:
Together these works showcase the breadth of what world literature can do, while gesturing at the unease of our moment. From Bernstein and Harding’s outsiders attempting to establish lives in societies that reject them, to the often-funny struggles of Escoffery and Murray’s adolescents as they carve out identities for themselves beyond their parents’ mistakes, to Maroo and Lynch’s elegant evocations of family grief – each speaks distinctly about our shared journeys while refusing to be defined as any one thing. These are supple stories with many strands, many moods, in whose complications we come to recognise ourselves. They are vibrant, nervy, electric. In these novelists’ hands, form is pushed hard to see what it yields, and it is always something astonishing. Language – indeed, life itself – is thrust to its outer limits.
Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, adds:
It’s a pleasure to be bringing their extraordinary talents and vastly varied styles to Booker Prize readers – and we can’t wait to hear what the thousands of members of the new Booker Prize Book Club on Facebook have to say about them.
Get involved
This year the Booker Prizes are running the Booker Prize Book Club as a new online community for readers to discuss and find out more about the six books in contention for the world’s most influential prize for a single work of fiction, the Booker Prize Book Club. Find out more.
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For more information, visit the Booker Prize website.
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The Booker Prizes’ Book of the Month
Each month the Booker Prizes’ Book of the Month shines a spotlight on a different work of fiction from among the 600+ titles in the Booker Library, through reading guides, extracts, opinion pieces, competitions and discussions on our social channels. We will be updating this page on our website every month. Find out more here.
