2023 Booker Longlist: How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney
How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney marks the approximate halfway point for our panelists as we make our way through the 2023 Booker longlist.
Elaine Feeney is an award-winning poet, novelist, short story writer and playwright from the west of Ireland. Her works often center around themes of national and cultural identity. She started off as a slam poet in her 20s and her debut novel, As you Were, won the Dalkey Emerging writer award. How to Build a Boat is her second novel and is set in the West of Ireland.
Synopsis taken from Booker Prize website: Jamie O’Neill loves the colour red. He also loves tall trees, patterns, rain that comes with wind, the curvature of many objects, books with dust jackets, cats, rivers and Edgar Allan Poe.
At the age of 13, there are two things he especially wants in life: to build a Perpetual Motion Machine, and to connect with his mother Noelle, who died when he was born. In his mind, these things are intimately linked.
And at his new school, where all else is disorientating and overwhelming, he finds two people who might just be able to help him.
Sound interesting? You can purchase a copy of the book here.
Our panelists were really divided on this one. Keep reading to find out how we ranked it.
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Nicole Del Sesto
The Reader's Room 