Booker 2022: Longlist predictions

It’s Booker season! Every year our panel comes together to read and review all the booker nominees and to predict the winners. The longlist will be announced this July 26th. Keep reading to find out who we all selected and let us know what you think.

BookWorm’s Predictions: My personal philosophy is previous winners need not apply. My predictions are a mix of books I have read, books from big names and books whose titles intrigue me. There are 2 eligible books I really hope don’t make it so I am completely ignoring their existence in the hope that the judges do too. 

• Things They Lost by Okwiri Oduor
• Lapvona by Otessa Moshfegh
• Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
• To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
• The Kingdom of Sand by Andrew Holleran
• Oh William by Elizabeth Strout
• The Colony by Audrey Magee
• You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
• The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid
• Trust by Hernan Diaz
• The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
• Either/Or by Elif Batuman
• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Tracy’s Predictions: Here’s my list of books that I think might make the long list. My track record is not good, but these have potential:

• The Colony– Audrey Magee
• Chouette– Claire Oshetsky
• There Are More Things– Yara Rodrigues Fowler
• The Slowworm’s Song– Andrew Miller
• Emergency– Daisy Hildyard
• Devotion– Hannah Kent
• When We Were Birds– Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
• Seek the Singing Fish– Roma Wells
• Venomous Lumpsucker– Ned Beauman
• Fight Night– Miriam Toews
• Nuclear Family– Joseph Han
• The Earthspinner– Anurhada Roy
• Glory– NuViolet Bulawayo

Jen’s Predictions:  This was a tough year to pick for me since there are so many good potential options and I haven’t come close to reading enough this year to help me make my predictions with any degree of confidence. Nevertheless, here are my predictions in no particular order:

• Lessons – Ian McEwan
• The Colony – Audrey Magee
• Young Mungo – Douglas Stuart
• Milk Teeth – Jessica Andrews
• Love and Virtue – Diana Reid
• The Marriage Portrait – Maggie O’Farrell
• Glory – NoViolet Bulawayo
• At Certain Points We Touch – Lauren John Josepth
• We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies – Tsering Yangzom Lama
• Our Country Friends – Gary Shteyngart
• Chouette – Claire Oshetsky
• The Candy House – Jennifer Eagan
• To Paradise – Hanya Yanagihara

Nicole’s Predictions: I suspect this year’s list will look a lot like 2020’s list. Last year I just randomly picked some books off the eligible list and got zero correct, this year’s predictions are a combo aspirational/random; I hope I get a couple right, but don’t expect to. Serious question – Can there ever be enough books about the Troubles? I think not.

• The Colony – Audrey Magee (I’m emotionally attached to this being nominated like 2020’s Apeirogon)
• Chouette – Claire Oshetsky
• Our Wives Under the Sea – Julia Armfield
• Booth – Karen Joy Fowler
• Learwife – JR Thorpe
• The Doloriad – Missouri Williams
• The Slowworm’s Song – Andrew Miller
• White on White – Aysegül Savas
• Brother Alive – Zain Khalid
• When We Were Birds – Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
• The Fell – Sarah Moss
• The Marriage Portrait – Maggie O’Farrell
• Lessons – Ian McEwan (my choice for big name book which probably shouldn’t be on the list)

Lisa’s predictions: I make choices based on books I’ve read and liked, books by authors I like, and books that look interesting to me. I can’t possibly get into the heads of the judges so I don’t even try.

Books I’ve read:

• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
• Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
• The Love Songs of W E B Dubois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
• Zorrie by Laird Hunt

Books by Authors I like:

• Companion Piece by Ali Smith
• To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
• Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh
• Horse by Geraldine Brooks
• The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
• The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid

Rounding out the list:

• How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
• Things they Lost by Okwiri Oduor
• The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka

Anita’s predictions: I’ve only read five books from the list of eligible novels, and of those, there’s only one that I think actually makes it to the longlist. That one is: The Colony by Audrey Magee. If that doesn’t make it on there, I’m shocked. Here’s the rest of my predications, mostly based on plotlines that sound Booker-ish to me. And a few based on authors I think might get a nod. I would be super happy if Elizabeth Strout’s Oh, William (my favorite author) makes it on to the longlist, but I don’t expect that will happen.

Susie’s Predictions:I’ve read a fair amount of Booker eligible novels leading up to this year’s season. Every year I threaten to hang up my Booker reading hat if a certain book doesn’t make it. This year that book is The Colony. I’d also be quite miffed if The Sentence didn’t make a showing. I’m quietly hopeful that the new novels by Marra, McEwan, and Ryan are spectacular and so I’m adding them to my predictions for a bit of good luck. Regardless of which titles make the list, I am looking forward to reading along with all of you.

• The Colony by Audrey Magee
• Burntcoat by Sarah Hall
• Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
• Chouette by Claire Oshetsky
• Companion Piece by Ali Smith
• The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid
• Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
• Trust by Hernan Diaz
• The Slowworm’s Song by Andrew Miller
• The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
• Lessons by Ian McEwan
• Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra (because I have my fingers crossed it will be fabulous!)
• The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan

Safe to say there will be some unhappy readers if we don’t see The Colony on the list.

What are your predictions?