Judging Booker Prize is agony, says Sarah Jessica Parker

Susan Choi – Flashlight

Choi’s sixth novel begins with a 10-year-old lady taking a stroll on a seashore along with her father, then waking up alone on the shore, along with her dad presumed drowned. As she tries to piece collectively what occurred, the story jumps throughout generations and areas, from Japan to America and North Korea.

The judges stated it is “a family drama and geopolitical thriller about a fascinating episode from history”, including: “This is one of those books that completely dominates your thoughts.”

Kiran Desai – The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

Desai received the Booker for The Inheritance of Loss in 2006, and is again with its long-awaited follow-up. Its 650 pages ship an epic story about love, ambition, household and belonging after two Indian writers who’ve settled within the US reconnect on an in a single day prepare.

The judges known as it “an intimate and expansive epic about two people finding a pathway to love and each other”, including: “Rich in meditations about class, race and nationhood, this book has it all.”

Katie Kitamura – Audition

The fifth novel by Kitamura is narrated by an actress who meets a person claiming to be her son, with overlapping narratives that blur the strains of the characters we play and actuality. Barack and Michelle Obama’s manufacturing firm are making a movie model starring Lucy Liu.

The judges stated it is “a brilliantly tense, taut novel that sees an actress’s life turned inside out and leaves a lot open to interpretation”, including: “What’s real? Audition makes existential detectives of us all.”

Ben Markovits – The Rest of Our Lives

A middle-aged man leaves his residence and marriage and goes on a highway journey after dropping off his daughter at college. It’s the twelfth novel by the UK-based American author, who was as soon as an expert basketball participant in Germany.

The judges stated: “A road trip chronicle, a book about sickness, a basketball novel, a family saga, and a story about how we say goodbye, with a ridiculously relatable narrator.”

Andrew Miller – The Land in Winter

Miller, from Bristol, was final nominated for Oxygen in 2001, and is shortlisted once more for this novel about two {couples}, with two pregnant ladies, whose lives unravel throughout a ferocious winter storm within the West Country in 1962.

The judges stated: “A novel about how to live, and about the tensions within marriages, set against the most dramatic winter in living memory. It’s a joy to read, a nerve-shredding pleasure.”

David Szalay – Flesh

The British-Hungarian author’s sixth novel follows the twists and turns as a shy 15-year-old boy from a Hungarian housing property turns into a driver and safety guard for London’s ultra-rich. Szalay was beforehand nominated for All That Man Is in 2016.

The judges stated: “A novel about class ascension and a man who is remarkably detached from his desires, and a disquisition on the art of being alive. It is also an absolute page-turner.”