Booker International Shortlist 2023: Standing Heavy by Gauz

Standing Heavy by Gauz

Could this heavyweight take the title?

BookWorm:  

Why it Could Win: This is timely book, it is about ordinary people caught up in world events and the reverberations of those events through time to the present today. It will make readers aware of the people they tend to ignore as they go through their daily lives without thinking. It provides a unique insight into the world of security.

Why it Might Not Win: Not bleak enough for Booker.

Rachel:

Why it Could Win: It’s sharp, funny, timely, fantastically readable and wide-ranging – I’d be delighted if this won.

Why it Might Not Win:  I don’t think it will. The format, the vignettes, the humour all make it feel a little less ‘weighty’ than some of the other reads, and although it covers serious topics, I don’t know that it has the impact or staying power of other titles.

Tracy:

Why it Could Win: A political commentary on France’s treatment of Black immigrants, the writing is clever and, at times, scathing.

Why it Might Not Win:  It’s one of those books where you feel like you had to be there to get it.

What do you think is this the winner?