Booker Prize 2023 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. This year’s longlist will be announced on August 1st. Trying to predict the longlist is almost like trying to predict the winning lottery numbers and typically our panel (and other groups across the web) only predicts a few of the books that end up on the longlist. Will we have better luck this year? Keep reading to find out who we all selected and let us know what you think.

Author Esi Edugyan will be chairing this year’s official booker panel which includes acclaimed British actress Adjoa Andoh, actor and columnist Robert Webb, writer and professor James Shapiro, and British poet Mary Jean Chan. Judges are looking for the “best work of long-form fiction” (Booker website). Novels are eligible if they were published in the UK or Ireland between October 1 2002 and September 30, 2023 in English as the original language (no translated works). Entries must be submitted by publishers and not authors and there are limits to the number of books each publisher is allowed to submit which varies based on how many past books they have had longlisted (so major publishing houses will have more submissions). To learn more about the prize and the judges please visit the bookerprize.com.

And now onto our panel’s predictions. To read more about each book or to purchase a copy for yourself, simply click on the book title in our lists.

BookWorm’s Predictions:  I am using my personal theory that if you have won the Booker Prize you don’t need to be longlisted again (sorry big name author) I will be happy to get more than 1 right as predictions like this are a dark art.

• Hungry Ghosts– Kevin Hosein
• Chain Gang All Stars– Nana Kwame Adjei Brenyah
• Fire Rush– Jacqueline Crooks
• Promise – Rachel Eliza Griffiths
• Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
• August Blue – Deborah Levy
• Shy – Max Porter
• Crook Manifesto – Colson Whitehead
• Sisterhood – Katherine Bradley
• A House for Alice – Diana Evans
• The Dog of the North – Elizabeth McKenzie
• A History of Burning – Janika Oza
• Skull Water – Heinz Insu Fenkl

Jen’s Predictions:
I actually spent a good deal of time and reflection on my predictions this year which probably means I will be grossly inaccurate. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this year was hard. So many renowned authors had/have books coming out between October 2022 and September 2023. In addition, a lot of debut works are getting good literary buzz this year. Each year I try to pick books that fit what I think the panel of judges like (based what they do/write/talk about) but this year is a very diverse group so a bit more challenging. I also try to pick a list that includes authors of diverse genders, racial/ethnic identities, country of origin and whose works include diverse topics or populations. So without further delay, here are my predictions:

• Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton. Why? She’s won before, one of the judges is a Shakespearian scholar, and I’ve read it and think it’s worthy. I find her writing style beautiful and brilliant.
• The House of Doors by Tan Twon Eng
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingslover. I haven’t read it but got swayed by other readers on goodreads and Litsy.
• In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
• Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah
• August Blue by Deborah Levy. Why? I haven’t read this yet but I this author and her writing style.
• Shy by Max Porter. Why? I LOVED LOVED LOVED Grief is the Thing with Feathers. I think his writing style will appeal to the judges, one of whom is a poet. I thought Shy was not as good as Grief but still a very good and beautifully written novel.
• Losing the plot by Derek Owusu
• The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright
• The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy. Not sure about this one.
• Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry
• This Other Eden by Paul Harding
• Chrysalis by Anna Metcalfe. I haven’t read this debut novel but it gets good reviews and plot and style sound like things that the booker panel might like.

Tracy’s Predictions: Since, as always, I have absolutely NO clue, I’m going with the following predictions, hoping that I will have read at least three or four of the books.

• House of Doors– Tan Twan Eng
• Victory City– Salman Rushdie
• Cuddy– Benjamin Myers
• Chain Gang All Stars– Nana Kwame Adjei Brenyah
• The Fraud– Zadie Smith
• In Memoriam– Alice Winn
• Fire Rush– Jacqueline Crooks
• Hungry Ghosts– Kevin Hosein
• Soldier Sailor– Claire Kilroy
• Losing the Plot– Derek Owusu
• Reproduction– Louisa Hall
• Riambel– Priya Hein
• This Other Eden– Paul Harding

Nicole’s Predictions:

Sigh – every year I struggle and think it’s the hardest year ever, but this year I am really struggling and it IS the hardest year ever. The thing is big names appear more than they realistically should, and the unknowns (like last year’s winner, which I loved) are a complete crapshoot. I predict I’ll get two right. I really don’t want to see Zadie Smith or Salman Rushdie on the list.

• The Passenger – Cormac McCarthy – not sure if it’s eligible anymore but worthy ….
• Cuddy – Benjamin Myers
• This Other Eden – Paul Harding – blurbed by Edugyan and I have started this like 7 times and cannot get into it at all, so likely to torture me further
• The House of Doors – Tan Twon Eng
• Enter Ghost – Isabella Hammad – I’m voting controversy, plus a Shakespeare connection
• The Sleeping Car Porter – Suzette Mayr
• Corey Fah Does Social Mobility – Isabel Waidner
• Home – Caileen Steed – crapshoot pick, Irish writer
• Riambal – Priya Hein
• Soldier, Sailor – Claire Kilroy – can’t seem to figure out how to get my hands on it so it probably makes the list
• Birnam Wood – Eleanor Catton – OK, the Booker predictors have convinced me
• In Memoriam – Alice Winn
• Wandering Souls – Cecile Pin

I’ve read one of these books. Am 25% through one and have started another 7 times, or maybe 15 times by now ….

Lisa’s predictions:

I chose books I read and liked, books by authors I like, and books that I want to read. It seems as good a way as any to pick the books.

• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton — I loved this one.
• Victory City by Salmon Rushdie
• Chain Gang Allstars — Nana Kramer Adjei- Brenyah
• The Biography of X by Katherine Lacey
• I am homeless if this is not my home by Lorrie Moore
• The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Geoff
• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
• The Fraud by Zadie Smith
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
• Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary
• Cuddy by Benjamin Myers
• The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

Anita’s predictions:

• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver – I’m the only person who disliked this book which means it absolutely is making the longlist based on my past track record.
• August Blue by Deborah Levy – One of my favorite authors so fingers crossed though this book isn’t her best.
• The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy – On the longlist more as an honor than for the quality of this book.
• Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary – Haven’t read, but have heard only raves
• Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson
• Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano – Seems too mainstream on some level, but I’d like to see it there.
• Quinn by Em Strang
• Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh – Dark and curious; up my alley
• The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut – Loved, loved When We Cease to Understand the World so just rooting for him and dying to read this.
• Birnam Wood by Ellen Catton – Australian and a great mash-up of genres
• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
• Cuddy by Benjamin Myers
• One Small Voice by Santanu Bhattacharya

As a collective group, Demon Copperhead, Cuddy, and Birnam Wood were on 4 lists and we had 47 unique predictions. What books did we miss? Who do you think will make the list?