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Booker Prize 2021

An overview and collected reviews of the shortlisted works for the prestigious award, won by Damon Galgut for ‘The Promise’

Damon Galgut on his Booker winner The Promise: ‘Death sets things off’
The South African’s novel impressed the judges by delving deeply into the psyche of a white clan — and a troubled nation
The Promise by Damon Galgut — a poisonous legacy
The South African author’s first novel for seven years has an immediacy that gives its wider themes all the more impact
Great Circle — two distinct heroines reach for the skies
Maggie Shipstead’s novel spans the world to interweave the stories of a 1930s aviator and a modern-day Hollywood star
Bewilderment by Richard Powers — ideas-rich fiction
A boy tormented by ecological catastrophe taps into the calmness of his late mother via AI in the new novel from the author of The Overstory
Booker Prize 2021: shortlist revealed
Prestigious literary award focuses this year on novelists who delved into ‘forces larger than themselves’
A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam — long shadows
The Sri Lankan writer’s second novel attempts to air the wounds of the country’s civil war and refuses to succumb to collective amnesia
No One Is Talking About This — dark vision of life led online
Patricia Lockwood’s debut novel is the latest in a flourishing genre about living through the internet
The Fortune Men — a blistering story of racial injustice in Wales
Based on a real-life case from 1952, Nadifa Mohamed’s captivating novel is teeming with character and evocative of its time