Show Notes
Esi Edugyan’s thrilling novel follows the astonishing adventures of its titular character, Washington Black, whose escape from the brutal cane plantations of Barbados was only the beginning. Shortlisted for the 2018 Booker Prize and set to be released as a glitzy television adaptation starring Sterling K Brown and co-produced by Edugyan later this year, what better excuse to dive into the novel?
In this episode Jo and James:
Introduce our April Monthly Spotlight pick
Share a brief biography of Esi Edugyan and her work to date
Summarise the novel
Discuss the plot and their thoughts
Suggest the kind of reader who will love the book
Reading list:
The Second Life of Samuel Tyne by Esi Edugyan
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/half-blood-blues
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/washington-black
Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-amber-spyglass
Any Human Heart by William Boyd: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/any-human-heart
This Other Eden by Paul Harding: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/this-other-eden
A full transcript of the episode is available at our website. Follow The Booker Prize Podcast so you never miss an episode. Visit http://thebookerprizes.com/podcast to find out more about us, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok @thebookerprizes.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from The Booker Prize Podcast
Earlier this week, author Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann were announced as the winners of the International Booker Prize 2024, for the novel, Kairos. Jenny and Michael join Jo and James to talk about whether their win has truly sunk in yet and what might be next, and administrator of the International Booker Prize, Fiammetta Rocco also joins to give some insight into how the prize works. It's our last episode of this season of The Booker Prize Podcast so make sure you don't miss this one – but all our previous episodes will continue to be available so you can listen whenever you want.
With under a week until the International Booker Prize 2024 ceremony, we're back with the second part of our deep dive into this year's six shortlist books. Listen in to hear what Jo and James think of the remaining three books on the list, common themes that run across the shortlisted reads and which book they want to see win the award.
We're three weeks away from the International Booker Prize 2024 award ceremony, so we thought it was high time to take a deep dive into this year's six shortlist books. In the first of two parts, we're exploring three of the books on this week's podcast episode. Listen in to hear what Jo and James make of them, common themes that run across the shortlisted reads and how the International Booker can expand one's world through literature.
In 1984, many assumed that J.G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun had the Booker Prize in the bag. But actually, it was Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac that clinched the prize in the end. This week, we're exploring the bookies' favourite vs the Booker winner to ask which book should have won: Brookner's short, quiet novel set in a genteel Swiss hotel or Ballard's long and action-packed autobiographical epic set in wartime Shanghai.
It's a big week in the literary calendar (if we do say so, ourselves), as we've just announced this year's International Booker Prize longlist. To mark the occasion, James is joined by Fiammetta Rocco, the administrator of the International Booker Prize, and Eleanor Wachtel, chair of the 2024 judging panel. Listen in as they discuss the prize, this year's longlisted books and why translated fiction matters.