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Booker Prize 2025 | Long List Predictions · Bookies' Favourite

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Hi. Hello.
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Welcome to the Club, Bookies, favorite book club that is.
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We discuss award-winning authors, nominated novels, best
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selling books, bookshelf stories, and recently released
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reads. This episode we are not
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reviewing a book. We are predicting what is going
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to be on the Booker Prize 2025 long list.
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Me and Colin have not read any of the books.
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Hannah is not with us today. Colin and I, Colin and I, just
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grammatical correction there. Lucy has read a larger selection
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of the books than any of us could ever dream to do.
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And so today we are going to present 4 choices of what we
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hope to be on the long list, which is being announced
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tomorrow. And on Wednesday we will be
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coming to you with a reaction to the actual announcement.
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I'm Aaron, the radio journalist amongst us.
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My name's Lucy and I'm planning on reading all of the long list
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this year. Hopefully, fingers crossed if
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everything goes to plan and hopefully I've already read some
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of the books on it. Otherwise I'm gonna have to buy
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a lot of new books. Also, if you're from the Booker
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Prize and you'd like to just send me them, that would be
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great. Hi, I'm Colin.
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I'm a writer. And yeah, I'm excited to read
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some some books. Not the longest because that's
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intimidating, but yeah, definitely excited to see what's
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been chosen and designated as the topics of the year.
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Whenever the shortlist is announced in September, we will
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be reading all of those six books on the run up to the
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winner. So this is just the start of the
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entire process. We're predicting what's going to
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be in the long list. Lucy's going to read the long
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list and we will react to to that and then we will be
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following along with the shortlist on this podcast.
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We do have a few other episodes that we will be putting out
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before the shortlist is announced.
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So basically what we're going to do now is we will go through
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Colin first, then Aaron and then me.
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We will all read out our first from our selection of four, and
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then that will add up to if you've been doing your maths,
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that will add up to 12 at the end.
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So we will have 12 predictions for what we think will be on the
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long list. Now there probably will be
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thirteen, I'm guessing, on the long list.
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That's going to be one of my first predictions.
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Colin, if you'd like to take it away with your #1 prediction on
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our first rookie's favorite prediction.
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Oh, drum roll. So my first prediction, mostly
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because the cover is beautiful, is called Earth or a Earth or E
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Earth or however you want to say it by Deborah Tompkins.
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It is a sci-fi story about a man called Magnus who lives on a
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Earth which is currently in an Ice Age.
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And there's there's a strange virus that is like limiting the
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population, stopping it from spreading too big.
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When the planet Earth or E Earth or however we're going to
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pronounce this, they're very similar to Earth.
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Let's just put it that way. Magnus vows to become an
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astronaut and travel there. Uh, but earth is, uh, very hot,
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crowded, corrupt and violent, as Magnus soon finds out and he
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realizes that he might not find what he's looking for and it
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seems like he may be trapped on, on earth, not a earth.
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Uh, and it's a story all about migration, climate conspiracy
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theories and interplanetary homelessness.
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It sounds good. The cover is absolutely
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beautiful. Uh, and we love a little sci-fi
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story. Uh, I started reading this one
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and, uh, it's interesting because it almost reads like a
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prose poem at points. It's a quick read so far.
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Uninteresting. Yeah, Very, very interesting.
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That sounds good to me. If that's on the the short list.
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I will definitely look forward to to reading that one.
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Lucy, what's your thoughts? My thoughts are that it does
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sound interesting and I agree I really like the cover, but I
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100% don't think this is going to be on the long list.
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Sorry, Colin, are. You just picking books that I'm
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like, this seems pretty and also it's as interesting.
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So Colin. It is so.
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Colin Yeah. Is it Sarah Jessica Parker?
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No, probably not. It's probably not.
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I can't. I can't imagine much sci-fi is
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going to make it this year. I don't know, just looking at
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the judges, I'm like Kylie Reed and stuff.
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I'm like, hmm, it's not feeling like a sci-fi year, but I hold
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out hope. And what is our number 2 bookies
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favorite from Aaron? Your prediction?
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So my first book prediction is The Book of Records by Madeline,
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Madeline Thean. I'm assuming it's Madeline.
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Madeline So Lena and her father come to an enclave called the
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Sea, and basically this is where time past and futures collide
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and she befriends multiple different philosophers and
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scholars throughout time throughout different cultures.
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It just sounds like a really interesting culmination of
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different viewpoints and different experiences and and it
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sounds a little bit fantasy sci-fi, but in a very
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philosophical manner. I.
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Think that's a very good prediction.
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It's been a lot less and it's kind of it's something that I'm
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kind of interested in reading, but I have a bit of a background
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in philosophy and I'm always a bit like hesitant to read books
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in them. But I I would love it to make a
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long less because then I will read it and I'm hoping that it
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might make me think think more about philosophy.
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Colin, your thoughts? Yeah, sounds good.
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I feel like I always like when books take philosophy things and
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like explain them in a much more like easy to digest sort of way
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because like when you read philosophy, it's so sometimes
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heavy and and long and it's only essays and that's not the
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greatest thing. But I think also comparing
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philosophy philosophies against each other and like fiction is a
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really good way of like doing it.
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So the third prediction, which will be my first prediction and
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with my 4 predictions, I've kind of I've not got, I've read I
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think 10 or 11 books that are eligible this year.
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And I've not predict like predicted my four favorite of
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those books that I have read. But this first prediction is
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probably one of my favourites of the ones that I have read.
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And it is Open Heaven by Sean Hewitt.
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And I think it's one of the ones that I will be actually kind of
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upset if it's not on the long list because I think it
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definitely deserves to be there. Sean Hewitt's primarily A poet
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and that usually when I hear that makes me think I'm not
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going to enjoy the book. I'm quite to read.
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A man who has recently separated with his husband thinks about 20
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years earlier when he like meets his first love in a small rural
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town in England. And just the experience of kind
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of like falling in love and being the only guy in the
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village. Well, I'm, I'm guessing he's the
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only guy in the village, but kind of being in this small town
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and it's early 2000 or 2002 and being like a teenager or young
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teenager and like experiencing all these kind of things for the
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first time. But I just thought the writing,
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it's quite a contentious book. A lot of people like, I've seen
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a lot of mixed opinions about it online, like about what it's
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about and things like that. But I find it really quite
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moving and like a story of like love and friendship and yeah, I
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just want it really important and thought it was really,
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really lovely. So I'm I'm really hoping that
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this makes the list. Yeah, it's, it's been on my list
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for a while to read as well. And anecdote here, I
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accidentally, well, accidentally, yeah.
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I saw Sean Hewitt coming out of his hotel in Edinburgh when he
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was visiting and I and I, it looked like I was following him,
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but I, I just so happened to be leaving or walking by the same
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time he was leaving. I was like, Oh my God, that's
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Sean Hewitt. What do you think, Aaron?
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Honestly, I'm not told. I'm not told.
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On to #4 and Colin's second choice.
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What sci-fi book have you for us next?
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Oh, sci-fi, huh? Let's see, you're wrong this
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time. Uh, this time it's magical
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realism. Oh, uh yeah.
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My other, my other category or genre that I really like.
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So this is, I picked this one because I really love one of the
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writer's other books. It's Karen Russell.
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I loved Swampalandia, a really, really good book all about grief
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but using like magical realism. It's set set in an alligator
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theme park. Anyway, we're not talking about
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that book. We're talking about something
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else. We're talking about the
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antidote. The antidote written by her.
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And this is a gripping Dust Bowl epic about 5 characters whose
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fates all become entangled after storm ravages their small
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Nebraskan town. And pretty much it follows what
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we call a Prairie, a Prairie witch, uh, which is a woman
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whose body serves as a bank vault for people's memories and
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secrets. So you have all these different
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people that crossover. Uh, and it's a, a novel is all
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about reckoning with the nation's forgetting of different
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people's stories and like the, the natives and that sort of
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thing, but also people throughout history.
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Uh, and it also, again, surprisingly talks about climate
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emergency, talks about generational to generational
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stories, traits, trauma, that sort of thing.
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Umm, I really, really like Swan Blandy.
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And I think what she did was using the magical realism of
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that and spirits using in like, uh, she's just very, very good
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at mirroring the reality with like, uh, some fantastical
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elements. I haven't heard much about that
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book. Umm, like in in the buzz of like
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the the that one's really, really good.
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That plot has has got me. I haven't read any of her other
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works or anything, but that sounds really good.
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What? What do you think, Aaron?
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Yeah, so this book actually has been on my radar for a while.
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And whenever I was in Phoenix in May, it was one of the books
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that I was considering getting, but I just didn't have enough
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space to to buy. It's as one of my books.
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It sounds very fascinating for me.
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And I like rural America historic books.
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And if you can add in like a little bit of fantasy element in
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there that that does kind of get me.
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OK, so my next book choice is Juice by Tim Winton.
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So this one sounds completely up my alley.
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It's about two fugitives, a man and a child, and they are on the
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run. They end up in a Minecraft in a
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desert, and they're not alone. I like a bit of Western, like I
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said, rural America. Don't have either of you heard
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about this or would you be? Interested in reading.
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I believe it's Australia. I think it's Australia, but it
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sounds great. Australia is pretty much, you
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know, vibe, same vibes, same vibes.
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I'm with Aaron. Dusty.
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It's dusty. Well, Aaron, I think that's a
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really interesting choice and it's a really interesting pick
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and I think just sounds really good.
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It's been a lot of lists and I think like it's stuff about
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climate change is kind of mentioned a lot and I think
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that's, that's an interesting topic and definitely very
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topical for the for the Booker longest.
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So yeah, I'm I'm king. It's the 6th one of our
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prediction list. And my second one is called The
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Language of Remembering by Patrick Holloway.
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Now, I don't know if I'm I only finished that last night, so I
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don't know exactly how I feel about it.
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It's what a man who is bringing his wife and daughter home to
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Ireland after they've been living in Brazil.
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His wife is Brazilian and they come back to Ireland, to Cork to
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kind of vaguely he's kind of looking after his mother who has
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like early onset dementia. So he's only in his or his mid
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30s, but his mum has dementia and she has reverted to speaking
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in Irish, which is not something he's ever learned.
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But he is obviously very good with languages as he speaks
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Portuguese. And I think he has a maybe
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another language, but he doesn't have any Irish.
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And he kind of goes to night classes and he's kind of, yeah,
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it's kind of it's, it's interesting.
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I don't know how I think it could be a good Booker one, but,
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and it's from a small press, at least I think it's a small press
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and I'm kind of thinking maybe they would want to get in with a
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couple of small press ones this year.
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And obviously like the the nature of like dementia and the
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Irish language are kind of popular ish topics at the
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moment. So I I don't I'm not 100% sure
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how I felt about it, but I think it would be it's a possible on
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the list be one of my predictions.
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I like these kind of ideas where they take something that is
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like, you know, I prefer books when they do something like, oh,
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interesting, like this. And I think this is quite cool.
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The idea that like speaking Irish when that's not like
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known. I always that always interests
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me. When you hear people who start
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talking with different accents after they get like some injury,
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some brain injury or whatever, it sounds good.
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And I'm always open to to like, delving into those cultural
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sides of like, well, Ireland and like, obviously that's going to
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be a big part of this book and sounds good.
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I yawn whenever I read a blurb and it's about blah blah blah.
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Moved to Ireland because they needed to reconnect with their
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roots so they needed to get a new perspective or whatever it
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is. But this one does sound
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interesting. The fact that it's revolves
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around the Irish language and the fact that a lot of Irish
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people don't speak it, and I think that's an interesting
13:57
element. So, you know, I'm not opposed to
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this one. I'm not yawning just quite yet.
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I thought you were going to say the minute you started speaking,
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let's say I started yawning. That's what I genuinely thought
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that you were going to say there.
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And I wouldn't be surprised. I would not be surprised.
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But I something that you actually did on there and that I
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think is actually really interesting is I think a lot of
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Irish literature and certainly a lot of Irish literature that's
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in in the list for this year does deal with the kind of
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coming back home, coming back and dealing with Ireland.
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And I think something that I was thinking about today a lot was
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the fact that like, obviously for economic reasons, throughout
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the history of Ireland, people have left.
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A lot of people have left, Colin has left, you know, other people
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have left. Like everybody has family
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members that don't live there. And like, I think because a lot
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of Irish families and Irish culture, obviously a lot of
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families along across the world have very tight knit
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relationships, but like small town town Ireland is all very
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tight knit. And it's the idea that you've
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almost kind of broken something when you've left and then you
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come back. And I think there's almost like
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a Hallmark E element to that kind of idea of, oh, I've come
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back from London and I'm having to deal with all like rural
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stuff. But there's almost this edge, I
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think, when it comes to like Irish ways of dealing with that,
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where it's like the community doesn't really.
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I don't know. Yeah, it's kind of it's, I'll
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maybe say more about it later when I'm reading some of the
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other books that I've also chosen that are very much on
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this line. I see a trend.
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I see a trend in the books, Lucy.
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Well, I mainly when I was like doing my kind of like I'm buying
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books for what I think are going to be in the long list or ones
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that I was in the West Coast of Ireland.
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So I was merely buying Irish books when I was there.
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So like I, I've of the like 11 books that I've read, they've
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like 6 have been Irish. And even like Sean, you lives in
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Ireland. Like it's like you're, yeah,
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I've gone very Irish centric. Patriotic.
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Patriotic. Yeah.
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Thank you, Colin. That's better.
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I've gone very patriotic of my choices.
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And Colin #7, you're #3. Yes, my #3 so, uh, this is
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called the Mobius book by Catherine Lacy.
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Uh, I love Catherine Lacy's other novel biography, biography
16:07
of XI Thought that book was great.
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And uh, I think the concept of like, uh, some sort of real,
16:15
like her own experiences, like Memoirsque, uh, but also
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Melodyne was like fiction. I mean, I guess it's that auto
16:21
fiction sort of thing. This book kind of takes that and
16:23
runs with it. Umm, whereas this one's the kind
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of lacking the like the that kind of hook.
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This book also, I'm not sure is it on all versions of the book,
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half of the book is flipped upside down.
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So you have to read from one side from one half one side to
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the middle and then the other half you turn upside down and
16:44
read the other. Right, but that could also just
16:45
be limited editions. I've seen those out and about.
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So it might not be every print version of the book.
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It's a genre bending story that deals with memoir.
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Catherine Lucy have after having sudden breakup and depression,
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it is her sort of coming to terms with, uh, all of this
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through, uh, the lens of faith and religion.
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She explores a lot of different stories that add up into this
17:10
one whole picture. For example, there's like, uh,
17:14
all, all exploring like lust when it's driven by grief, uh,
17:19
and how friendships, uh, can pull people out of holes and,
17:22
and this sort of thing. I don't fully know what the plot
17:26
is and I don't think there really is a plot.
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I think it's a bit more nebulous than that and it's more like
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musings. But I really just because her
17:33
other stuff is great or last her other book was great.
17:36
I'm very much on board to give this one a shot.
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I'm like, I actually, so I've heard some people being like, I
17:42
don't think that this this book is eligible because of the
17:45
autobiographical elements, but I hope that it is eligible.
17:48
I really hope it is. I think it sounds really
17:50
interesting. I think for me, this type of
17:53
book is either hit or miss. I imagine I'll love it or I'll
17:58
hit it like one of the two. I'm I'm hesitant as to whether
18:02
or not I'll enjoy it, but I do hope it's on the list.
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Aaron, what are your. Thoughts.
18:07
You know, I'm I'm it doesn't strike me as too interesting.
18:11
The book title sounds interesting, and the little
18:15
gimmick that you read half of it upside down sounds interesting.
18:19
But the actual premise of the book, I'm not sold if it's
18:24
there. I'll obviously give it a go if
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it's on our shortlist. And but you know, it's not one
18:31
that I'm really excited for. And just based off that that
18:37
premise. Sorry, Colin.
18:38
So on to our 8th book, which is my third choice and this is
18:45
going to be Saraswati by Gurney IK Johao.
18:49
I probably got that wrong. So this book is about a river, a
18:55
mythical river that flows through northern India.
18:59
It has dried up and they start to uncover what happened and it
19:07
spans across the globe and we find out about multiple
19:12
different people and how this river has impacted their their
19:16
lives. It just sounds very interesting.
19:18
The cultural aspects of it being based in India dealing with this
19:23
mythical river. Yeah, I I really like the sounds
19:26
of this. I actually love Indian
19:28
literature is obviously because India is such a huge place and
19:31
so much diversity within India. But I I struggle to think of
19:36
Indian books that I've not enjoyed that I've read.
19:38
Maybe I just read like the best of Indian fiction.
19:40
Maybe there's some terrible Indian fiction out there that
19:42
I've never heard. Also Indian mythology.
19:44
I just think it's fascinating. I think it'll be really
19:46
interesting to read and I would love it to be in the long list.
19:49
So yeah, I'm Team Iron with that one.
19:52
I think for me, while I like the premise of this river and like
19:55
intertwinance of I don't know, this kind of feels like one of
19:58
those books were it's like what's what's going like what's
20:02
the the through line here? I mean, yeah, obviously this
20:04
river kind of is that, but it feels like it's maybe we were
20:07
talking about short story collections and how these gives
20:11
me that vibe of that's maybe more like disparate stories in
20:14
connect now that there's anything wrong with that,
20:16
because we all read under the eye of the big bird.
20:17
And I think like we kind of we do, you know, we, we admired
20:20
that, that element of it. And I don't know, I think.
20:25
Yeah, it's not grabbing me quite as much as as I would like.
20:28
Our 9th prediction and my third prediction is Universality by
20:34
Natasha Brown. This is actually the first book
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I think I've read on my books I've read that are eligible, so
20:40
that my memory of it might might not be exactly correct.
20:45
It's a very short book. Natasha Brown was one of the 40
20:50
under 40 on Grantham magazine, and she actually released the
20:54
first part of this book as one of the that was in that magazine
20:59
edition. So I'd read it like years before
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I read Universe Universality, the book as a whole.
21:06
And the first part of it is a journalist's story about how a
21:12
commune exists in the north of England during lockdown and a
21:16
man is bludgeoned over the head with a gold bar.
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And it's this kind of story that kind of catapults this woman, a
21:24
journalist who's kind of struggling, a working class
21:27
journalist who's struggling into like being listened to more and
21:31
like a, a new kind of like, what's the word like a
21:35
professional, her career kind of takes off.
21:38
But that's the first section of the story.
21:41
And then there's other sections that kind of you, you, you the
21:46
story unfolds differently as to every part of the story is, is
21:52
throws like a shadow on the part that came before.
21:55
And you you realize there's more to all of these stories and the
21:58
interconnectivity and class becomes like a massive thing.
22:05
Politics, UK politics, very it's all set in England and it's very
22:10
topical with like UK stuff. I can't a lot of it.
22:13
I can't really exactly remember. But one reason that I really
22:15
wanted to be on the longest again is because I want to read
22:17
it again. It's actually very short.
22:19
So I probably should just read it again.
22:21
But yeah, I like books where, you know, there's, there's
22:26
unreliability and not necessarily just like an
22:29
unreliable narrator kind of way, but in a way that you, you hear
22:32
from other people and it unfolds in quite a clever way as to what
22:37
what's been told to you that's wrong.
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And also just kind of you're like, you're left a bit maybe,
22:42
like, I don't know what actually happened here.
22:45
And I suppose that's the way life is.
22:47
I thought, Aaron, you might be interested in it because of your
22:50
background as a journalist. So what do you think?
22:52
There are a lot of books that are eligible that do feature
22:56
journalists as characters to some degree or another.
23:01
The story itself I'm not too excited by, I think modern day
23:09
story. If it was a story about a
23:12
journalist in the Dust Bowl in America or a story about a
23:16
journalist in space, would you be more interested?
23:21
You know, I probably would. Or Australia, apparently I am
23:26
not too interested in modern day stories.
23:29
I'm not too interested in stories that I can connect to in
23:35
a very situational thing. So stories about Belfast or
23:42
living in modern day Ireland. I'm not into stories about the
23:48
Troubles. I'm not into stories about COVID
23:52
and lockdown. I really don't think I'm into
23:55
that. I don't know why, but it just
23:59
maybe seems too close. It's just not the kind of book I
24:02
would pick up myself, but yeah. Aaron, did you hear me when I
24:06
said it's really short? You've sold me.
24:09
I as much like I I think that's a funny what Aaron was just
24:12
saying, but this sounds a lot like trust by Hernan Diaz and I
24:16
love trust. And I think that thing of like
24:18
building on the story and using those like, you know,
24:21
unreliable, unreliable narrators and like the truth.
24:24
I think that's great. I mean, you have to create your
24:26
own picture. I think that this sounds.
24:27
I love the initial premise of like someone being the debt
24:30
being beaten to death with a gold like a gold bar like.
24:34
Not to death, I don't think. Oh, not to death.
24:36
OK, Well, yeah, being beaten with with a golden bar.
24:40
I mean, like that screams class divide.
24:43
You know, there's something about that.
24:44
So I'm very this one sounds great.
24:47
I didn't actually, I'd seen it unless, but I didn't really look
24:50
at it because I was like, not really drawn by the title on the
24:52
cover. But now I'm like, you know what?
24:53
I should have give this a second look because it sounds great.
24:56
#10 with Colin. So this is your final choice,
25:00
Colin. OK, so for my final pick, this
25:04
is a book that I have had on my list for a very, very long time,
25:07
even before it's published. And it was published in the US
25:12
much earlier than it was published here.
25:13
And I've been like waiting, waiting with bated breath and
25:18
it's release and I just haven't got around to reading it.
25:21
It is called Beauty Land by Marie Helene Bertino and this
25:26
was also on Hannah's list and she couldn't make it for this
25:28
recording, but this is 1 from her and pick.
25:31
So Hannah's here in spirit with this one.
25:33
And so, uh, Beauty Land is about an alien, uh, a surprise
25:38
surprise, another sci-fi Wow, Colin, very original.
25:41
It's about an alien who has been sent by her extraterrestrial
25:46
like family to report on the oddities of earthlings.
25:49
So it's her kind of going through discovering all these
25:53
strange things about about humans.
25:57
She it evolves into some way about spreading the message of
26:06
these aliens. I don't fully understand how it
26:09
gets to this point, but it's like, but spreading the message
26:11
of these aliens and what they believe to, to to the earth and
26:15
to all the people who live there.
26:17
And I think the book is specifically all about the
26:23
fragility and resilience of life on Earth and all these different
26:28
themes about what make people human, that sort of thing.
26:30
I love those kind of ideas. Again, it kind of brings up
26:34
thoughts of Under the Eye of the Big Bird, which kind of had all
26:37
these themes as well built into it.
26:39
And, but it also sounds very, very similar to Sayaka Murata's
26:43
Earthlings, although that was a little more bizarre, bit more
26:46
out there. Very, very interested.
26:48
Uh, it's, uh, also a coming of age story and I don't think
26:51
we've had any of those on the list yet.
26:52
And. Yeah, literally my first pick.
26:54
Colin, come on. Oh sorry it did.
26:56
Sorry, yes, we did have a it's a coming of age story and I'm a
26:59
big sucker for coming of ages so umm, uh yeah.
27:02
Very interested in this one. Yeah, it doesn't.
27:05
Doesn't grab me. Sorry Colin, it was 1.
27:08
Because it's not, it's not someone returning to Ireland.
27:10
That's why Lucy, it's someone from space, you know?
27:14
Yeah, space. Yeah, well, as long as they're
27:17
like going from space to Ireland, I'm fine.
27:20
Yeah. Then you're in, then you're on
27:21
board, right? That's a good story if yeah, if
27:26
an alien has to come down to rural Ireland, actually, she was
27:30
so much right that that's that would be great.
27:32
And. Actually does sound pretty great
27:34
it. Would.
27:35
Be It would be the perfect book podcast for us.
27:39
Lucy, have you ever heard of Nora Patton?
27:42
No. She's an an astronaut from
27:45
Ballina. She does that cool.
27:48
Actually that's very cool. I would like to read a book
27:51
where she comes back from NASA and has to go and live in Balana
27:55
again. Yes, yeah.
27:57
And everyone's like, oh, she's got such notions.
27:59
So she's headlights she's been to.
28:01
Speech. Who does she think she is?
28:03
Yeah. Oh, do you know what, Nora?
28:06
Can I have rights to tell that story, please?
28:11
Sorry, where were we? I had actually never seen it
28:13
before. Hannah had kind of suggested it
28:14
and I was like, what is this? And it's very you and Hannah,
28:18
and it could take me by surprise.
28:21
You know, for me it actually does sound interesting and I I'm
28:27
sold on this. Aaron #11 Book 4 from you.
28:33
So my 4th and final choice is Tilt by Emma Patty.
28:40
So this book is a bit different from books that I would usually
28:46
say would interest me because it's modern day.
28:49
It's set in Portland in Oregon. And there's a woman who's nine
28:55
months pregnant and she's doing a bit of furniture shopping for
29:00
the baby in IKEA when a massive earthquake strikes and she has
29:06
to make it back to her partner. And across Portland, she has no
29:14
money, she has no phone, and she's pregnant, heavily, heavily
29:20
pregnant. So it's basically a journey
29:23
through destruction and seeing how people help each other and
29:29
how people recover from the aftermath of massive tragedy.
29:35
I think it sounds class, but I didn't actually know anything
29:37
about it before you mentioned it there and that you've sold me on
29:41
that. That sounds great.
29:43
I'd be up for that. Yeah, I agree.
29:45
I think it sounds like a fun fun.
29:46
I just don't understand. I don't see it maybe as a Booker
29:49
book, but it sounds like a good book in general.
29:51
You know, I don't know how much it goes into wider themes.
29:55
See, when Aaron started talking about this, I was like, this is
29:57
very offbeat for Aaron. And then he was like, then
29:59
there's a massive hurricane or earthquake or something.
30:01
That's, yeah. There we go.
30:04
Yeah. I like my action.
30:08
What's the bookies favorite final prediction for what's
30:12
going to be on the the Booker list?
30:14
This final one actually wasn't one of the ones that I put in my
30:17
original. I made a list of 13.
30:18
This is actually not this is this is crept on here and I've
30:21
just started it today and maybe like 70 something pages in.
30:25
Yeah, it's very much what we've been making fun of me about all
30:29
day. No.
30:32
It's culminating it all into one like.
30:36
Distilling. I bought this in Ballina,
30:40
funnily enough, and when I was there and I was kind of like, I
30:45
wanted to get like a local book. And I actually I don't like the
30:48
title. So I should say the title Let Me
30:50
Go Mad in My Own Way by Elian Feeny.
30:53
And I don't like the title and I didn't like the blurb, but I was
30:56
kind of like, I want to get a book from here.
30:57
And it was signed by the author. So I was like, and also she's
31:00
not from Ballina. Ballina as a mayor.
31:01
She's from Galway, but I thought she was from from Ballina.
31:06
Anyway, so I bought this book thinking all this stuff.
31:08
And then when I realized that that wasn't correct and I didn't
31:11
really like the sound of the blurb and I didn't really like
31:13
the the title of the book, I was like, this is going to be
31:15
rubbish and I'm not going to read it.
31:16
But then yesterday I was like, I should just read this book
31:19
because I spent money on it. I don't need to read it.
31:22
And it could be up for the, you know, the longest.
31:24
And I happened, I'm sending some pages in and I'm really enjoying
31:28
it. It is a boy, a woman, who has
31:32
gone from London back to Athan Rai of.
31:36
Course. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
31:39
So she has a she's broken up this this is like a Hallmark
31:43
film. She's broken up with her
31:44
boyfriend in 2019. So COVID becomes part of this.
31:46
By the way, aren't so it's a Bengal list of everything Aaron
31:50
loves. So basically she she goes back
31:55
home to rural Athan Rai and her English boyfriend.
32:00
She, she was in the big smoke, she was in London for the last
32:03
10 years and she's got notions above her station about London
32:07
stuff. Well, according to everybody in
32:08
Athan Rai. And so she moves back after her
32:11
parents die and there's a complicated relationship with
32:14
her parents again. Bingo ticklist.
32:18
And she's moved back and her English boyfriend, who has never
32:22
been to Ireland before, has decided to go and live in Athan
32:26
Rai. And, and I agree that that
32:29
sounds like a genuinely terrible book, but I've been reading it
32:36
and it's so well written. I have to say it's, it seems
32:40
like the kind of book that a 70 year old Irish woman would read
32:45
and I'm slightly younger than that, but it's very much I'm I'm
32:49
really loving it and I really hope that it gets into the long
32:51
list. I'm hoping that like Roddy Doyle
32:53
or SJP will consider it with the Irish angle there.
32:57
I can understand immediately why you guys would not want to read
33:00
it, and I will be fine with you all saying this sounds awful so
33:05
take it away. Yeah, I'm sorry, Lucy.
33:08
I hope this one does not end up on the long list.
33:11
I'm happy that you're enjoying it, but it better not be on the
33:15
shortlist because I am not excited to to dive into this
33:20
this copy and paste story. I mean, I maybe interestingly,
33:26
it's been on my list even before you start saying this.
33:29
Lucy's been my to buy this for a while and I love the cover
33:32
firstly, and I think that's the thing that grabbed me.
33:33
But actually we think the story sounds good and why we joke
33:36
about these themes and the plot and stuff.
33:39
I actually like books that are like this and I think it makes
33:42
me think of very, very different story, but The Colony and by
33:47
Maggie. Matt, Audrey McGee.
33:49
Audrey McGee Yeah, I love it. And I think it like, I think
33:53
that's the first book that I read that I was like, oh, I like
33:55
these kind of themes of like, you know, culture clash in a
33:57
way, and like exploring those things.
34:00
And I think this book kind of like, yeah, it's been on the
34:02
list for a while because it does seem like it touches on those
34:05
things also. Also, who doesn't have Athenry?
34:08
Yeah, with no lying fields. I I think it's a testament to a
34:14
book when you read the blurb and you think this is just as as
34:19
Aaron's had a copy and paste book.
34:21
Because I think that there's no such thing like as a bad plot in
34:24
a book. It's the writing.
34:25
The writing makes a book. There's no, I don't think I
34:29
think that when I started reading it, I immediately was
34:32
like, this is going to be so boring.
34:35
I'm going to have to read this book.
34:36
It's going to be all the Irish mums are going to love it and
34:38
that that kind of style. And it's not it's outdated
34:41
almost as well. But when I started reading it
34:44
and the relationships and the way she writes the relationships
34:48
with them, the woman's parents, I think as well, like, as
34:51
obviously we're all Irish. Like reading it, you're so like
34:54
transported into like those, those family relationships that
34:57
are so strange and like religion and like that impacts things.
35:02
I, I think it's excellent. And I think to be able to write
35:05
the story and a plot that's so basic to make it interesting is
35:09
the mark of a good writer. And Elaine Feeny is definitely a
35:13
good writer it. Makes me think like, I mean,
35:15
maybe this completely off topic, but last last year I read the
35:20
Bee sting by Paul Paul Murray and I was like, I'm not really
35:27
going to enjoy this, I think. And then it ended up being one
35:29
of my favorite books of the year.
35:30
It was so good. I just loved it.
35:32
I thought it was a great story. And like, yeah, you get in that
35:34
close complex Irish, like family relationships and and all those
35:38
themes of religion stuff all intersect and stuff.
35:40
And I think it's so. And maybe because we understand
35:42
and we come from that angle where we, we get it, you know,
35:44
that makes it so real and like, captivating.
35:47
But I think Ilian Feeny like uses language really well and
35:52
really simply. And so far, again only 70 pages,
35:55
then could completely go the other way.
35:57
But really, I'm so impressed with what I've read so far.
36:01
OK, so that's that's our 12 books that that we are the
36:05
bookies favorite have decided we would like to see on the Booker
36:11
Prize 2025 long list. We're now going to run through a
36:15
speed round of the rest of the eligible books that Lucy has
36:20
read, and we're just going to see why you didn't include them
36:24
in your four. Colin if you want to name the
36:28
first one for Lucy nesting. Yeah, Nesting is a book by
36:31
Rosine O'Donnell and I've got a copy of the book here and it is,
36:35
there's a quote from Roddy Doyle there at the top.
36:37
So that's the chair Booker. So there's actually this one has
36:41
been, I think on everyone's like lists and it's like everyone's
36:44
talking about it. I bought it and because it was
36:47
in the women's long list and I thought it was kind of had a
36:50
very interesting premise. And I read it that day.
36:53
The minute it came, I was reading other books.
36:55
But I just like it's, it's a, it's a day read.
36:59
It's very gripping. So it's basically about a
37:03
Englishwoman called Kira who lives in Dublin.
37:06
She's not she's getting back to her Irish roots.
37:08
She's not going back to her hometown Ireland.
37:10
So it's not, it's not quite in my theme Irish literature, but
37:16
she's married an Irish guy. I believe he's from Monahan and
37:20
they live in Dublin. It's about an abusive
37:22
relationship, not a physically abusive relationship, but a very
37:25
emotionally and very controlling relationship is.
37:28
It's horrible read. In some ways, it's very you're
37:31
just waiting for the ground to go from under her at all times.
37:35
But it's extremely captivating. I think there's a very high
37:38
chance that this will will be on the list.
37:41
OK, then on to thirst trap. Now I'm slightly surprised this
37:46
book has been mentioned on this podcast before.
37:48
It was Hannah's choice for one of our polls.
37:52
But you, you attended a talk by the the author of the book, and
37:55
so why, why didn't you put this one in there for?
37:58
Yeah, so Thirst Traps by Granjo Hair.
38:00
He's from Belfast and it's set in Belfast.
38:02
I'd be very, very surprised if this book is that Booker I, I do
38:07
like, I mean, it's eligible, but I, I don't know.
38:10
I'd be very, very surprised and I'd be surprised if Picador, the
38:16
publisher would, would put it in, to be honest.
38:18
It's not very, it's not a Booker book and it's about 3 girls in
38:22
Belfast here in their late 20s and they're kind of like
38:26
struggling with kind of growing up kind of things and one of
38:29
their friends has just died. It's not a it's, it's well
38:31
written. I think Ronnie O'Hara is a good
38:33
writer, but I just, this is not, it wasn't one of my favorite
38:35
books. It wasn't.
38:36
I'd be very surprised if it's on and I would be a bit
38:38
disappointed if it was on. Next we have The Hounding, which
38:41
is a book that I'd I'd brought up for one of our polls as well,
38:44
and it almost won. I think it was one vote off and
38:47
I was like, no. But anyway, Lucy, what did you
38:50
think? And the hounding I did like I
38:52
don't, I don't think it's something on the list and I
38:54
really don't. It's about a five daughters who
39:00
live in this small town in England on the Thames.
39:03
I think it's but they are like it's like 1800s at some point
39:09
and everybody kind of thinks that they're like shape shifting
39:11
into dogs in the town. It's got a good a lot of good
39:14
things. And I think it would be an
39:16
interesting one to actually reading the book club and the
39:18
the things you could talk about about it would have been really
39:20
interesting. As I was reading, it was kind of
39:22
like, oh, that it's kind of a shame that this wasn't chosen
39:25
for the book club, but I don't know.
39:26
It's a book club book. I don't think it's a.
39:29
And the next one is Twist. Why did that not make your your
39:33
list? So I actually love Twist by
39:35
Colin McCann. That's another Irish one.
39:38
But it so basically like there's a guy who is a journalist.
39:43
No, not even like a writer journalist kind of.
39:46
So he writes kind of like think pieces about stuff from Ireland
39:49
who goes to meet a guy who fixes the cables that run Internet
39:54
across the world. And he's from Rathlin Island.
39:57
So big mention to Rathlin Island because it's a lovely island.
40:01
There's a lot of comparisons, I think to The Great Gatsby in how
40:04
it's told, the story, how it's told.
40:06
And I actually think there are a lot of similarities there, but
40:09
it's a very different subject matter.
40:10
But the way he, the guy, the way the journalist writer portrays
40:16
the man that he's like going to like shadow, his life is very
40:21
Gatsby, ask very Nick and Gatsby.
40:24
And then. Like how he inserts himself into
40:26
the life of this man. But I really enjoyed it and I
40:29
definitely would read it again. Yeah, I would be very happy if
40:32
it was on. Endling, which I've not heard
40:34
of. Endling is by Maria Riva and
40:37
she's a Ukrainian author. It's another one that's kind of
40:40
not put downable. It's very quick read.
40:43
The main character is a woman from Ukraine who is really
40:48
obsessed with snails and like snails that are dying out very
40:52
specifically. And she to get money.
40:54
She works as like inverted commas bride for Western
41:00
tourists who come to Ukraine who want to like make it meet a
41:04
Ukrainian bride effectively. So she goes to those things,
41:07
gets money from them, and then she has no intention of marrying
41:10
them. And a lot of people just do it
41:11
to get a basic income. Her mother is like a feminist
41:14
activist and she's kind of gone off grid and they don't know
41:17
where she is. And so one of the sisters
41:19
decides that she's going to kidnap a bunch of the American
41:24
slash British and men that have come to get wives and then do a
41:29
big kind of thing that she hopes will get her mother's attention
41:31
and her mom will come back. All of a sudden, the Ukrainian
41:34
war breaks out. Also, Maria Riva has like
41:38
inserted herself into it and her grandfather in it.
41:40
It's just like the it's it's such a Booker book.
41:43
I think I'd be very surprised if it's all on the list.
41:45
And I think it should be on the list.
41:47
Definitely. It's so weird.
41:48
And it's like. It's a good book, and then your
41:51
final read of the speed rant is The Book of Guilt.
41:55
Yeah, so I read that one quite recently and I, I wasn't a big,
41:58
wasn't a huge fan. It was very similar to another
42:01
Booker winning authors book and I couldn't help but compare them
42:06
the whole way through and I find that quite distracting and it
42:10
made me kind of be like, I'm not really enjoying this.
42:12
I think. I think a lot of the plot as
42:14
well was not amazing. So it's about 3 boys who are
42:18
identical twins, sorry, identical triplets and they are
42:21
growing up in the Sycamore homes, which is like a housing
42:25
scheme. It's also an alternate history.
42:27
So it's a history where Hitler is assassinated and World War 2
42:34
ends in 1943 and they start using all the the kind of
42:37
science that's been developed at the time kind of goes ahead.
42:40
And as Europe hasn't been decimated as much as it was,
42:44
like things are happening way quicker than previously.
42:47
But the second war homes are being worn down and these
42:52
children are to be put into the normal, like the normal world
42:57
and to be put with families and things.
43:00
And obviously there's something not normal about these children,
43:04
but what is it? You'll have to read to find out.
43:07
Now, there are still a couple more books that you've read.
43:10
So we already have a couple of episodes and that we've done for
43:17
books that are eligible. And we've done an episode on
43:20
Eden Shore by Ashen Fagan and Lucy and I are actually going to
43:25
be breaking that book down chapter by chapter.
43:29
And so you can keep an eye out for that.
43:30
And if you want to read along, definitely chime in.
43:34
I would be excited to see that one on the list.
43:36
I think Lucy, you said you don't think it's a very Bucherish kind
43:39
of book. I would I would again, like you
43:42
said, I'd love to see it on the list.
43:43
I think it would be a bit of a departure from the usual and it
43:45
would be something a bit different because quite
43:47
adventury, but it also is deep and it's like it's it's an
43:50
interesting way to tell a story as well.
43:51
So I, I think I would love them to recognize it and to be like,
43:55
this is a really good book. But I, I don't, I think there'll
43:58
be a lot of ones that are people returning to Ireland, not people
44:01
leaving Ireland. What do you think, Colin?
44:03
You read it as well. Yeah, I like it.
44:04
Anything. Yeah, I get what you mean by
44:05
might it be a Booker book. It is a bit like 2 eventually,
44:09
maybe too playful in a way. I don't want to say that, but I
44:12
think the Booker kind of plays a very safe a lot of the time with
44:15
themes and they they have very, they're much more literary
44:19
slanted rather than like if something comes along.
44:21
I'm well aware that the books I picked are all very kind of
44:24
genre and I, I like the Booker isn't known to pick those sorts
44:27
of books. So they probably like I I'm
44:29
aware they might not land on the list.
44:31
And I also think Eden Shore, yeah, probably won't be on the
44:33
list for the same reasons. Then there's another book that
44:36
you had an episode about and that is The Benefactors.
44:42
Yeah, and so me and what Stacey read next, check her out on
44:46
Instagram. We read the manufacturers and
44:48
the episode should be available. And I really enjoyed the
44:51
manufacturers and I would absolutely love to see it on the
44:55
long list. And I will be a bit sad if it's
44:56
not on the long list and I could also see it.
44:59
Nothing on the long list, you know?
45:01
And you should listen to our episode because it's kind of
45:03
interesting. Well, it's very interesting,
45:05
actually. Sorry.
45:06
We also have Confessions by Catherine Airy and that is
45:13
upcoming and it's that episode's going to come out at some point
45:17
in September prior to the shortlist announcement.
45:20
So if it's on the long list, we will be discussing it at some
45:25
point. And so if if you're interested
45:28
in reading confessions, please read along.
45:31
It is a bit of a big one, but Lucy is adamant that it's
45:35
shorter than it looks. So the Booker Prize 2025 long
45:39
list will be announced tomorrow. So we will find out what
45:44
actually has made it. And if any of the books that
45:47
we've discussed in this episode actually will appear, we will be
45:52
reacting to that. And that episode will be coming
45:55
out on guidance day. So we will be giving you a
45:59
rundown of what we think of the books that actually do make it
46:03
to that list. Our episode on Glorious exploits
46:07
by Ferdia Lenin is incoming. And I know that we've kind of
46:12
messed up our schedule here, but it's going to be coming to you
46:16
on Monday so you can keep an eye out for that next week.
46:20
So you can get in contact with us on Instagram.
46:23
We are at Bookies favorite book club and let us know what your
46:26
hopes are for what books you want on the long list as well.
46:30
You can also e-mail us with your predictions and thoughts on our
46:34
predictions at bookiesfavoritebookclub@gmail.com.
46:37
And there is a you in favorite. Also, we have Goodreads where we
46:41
post reviews of books that we've previously reviewed and
46:45
sometimes we post them. And so that's the bookies
46:48
favorite book club. Yes, that's how you can get in
46:51
contact with us. And I believe Colin will say the
46:54
bookies out thing because I'm not going to say.
46:56
It bookies. Out.
46:59
Bye bye.