In 1970, when the Booker Prize was still in its infancy (its second year running, in fact), the prize was awarded to Bernice Rubens. Rubens was the first woman to win the award and is still the only Welsh person to ever win the prize. 2023 marks the centenary of Rubens' birth so, this week, we're taking a closer look at The Elected Member – a piercing novel that explores what happens to a respectable, close-knit Jewish family when their prodigious son becomes a middle-aged drug addict.

In this episode Jo and James:

Ponder the weight of being the eldest child

Share a brief biography of Bernice Rubens

Give a slightly spoiler-y summary of The Elected Member

Discuss whether parental expectation can turn from encouragement to abuse

Consider how love can be damaging

Wonder why Bernice Rubens has fallen off the radar

Decide who should read The Elected Member


Reading list:

The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens

Bruno's Dream by Iris Murdoch

Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel by William Trevor

Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen

The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles

When I Grow Up by Bernice Rubens

The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis

In Transit by Brigid Brophy

The Fire-Dwellers by Margaret Laurence

The Hungry Grass by Richard Power

Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark


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.
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Why you should read The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens

A weekly podcast featuring lively conversations and fascinating insights from the Booker Prizes. Join us as we revisit winning novels from years past, speak to authors and experts from the literary world and peer behind the curtain of this year's International Booker Prize and Booker Prize.

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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 this episode Jo and James discuss:

Their initial thoughts on the 2024 shortlist as a whole

The common themes running through these books

Brief biographies of each author, and short summaries of each book

Their thoughts on the three books books discussed in this episode


Reading list:


The Details by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-details



Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/kairos



What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma, translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/what-id-rather-not-think-about



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. 
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The International Booker Prize 2024 Shortlist (Part 1)

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. 

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Washington Black by Esi Edugyan: April's Monthly Spotlight

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. 

In this episode Jo and James:

Discuss the Booker Prize 1984 shortlist

Share a brief biography of Anita Brookner

Summarise the plot of Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac

Explore the characters in Brookner's novel

Share a brief biography of J.G. Ballard

Summarise the plot of Empire of the Sun

Who should read these books

Discuss their thoughts on both novels and which they think should have won the Booker Prize 1984


Reading list:

Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/empire-of-the-sun


Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/hotel-du-lac


Small World by David Lodge: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/small-world


Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/flauberts-parrot


In Custody by Anita Desai: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/in-custody


According to Mark by Penelope Lively: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/according-to-mark 



A full transcript of the episode is available at our website: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/the-booker-prize-podcast-episode-37-empire-of-the-sun-or-hotel-du-lac

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. 
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Empire of the Sun or Hotel du Lac: The Booker vs the Bookies

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.

Conversation topics in this episode:

Fiammetta shares how the International Booker Prize began, and how it works in tandem with the Booker Prize 

The importance of translators

The surging popularity of translated fiction, especially amongst younger readers

What it's like to be a judge for the International Booker Prize

Common themes in contemporary literature across the world

The 2024 longlist


Reading list:


Not a River by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/not-a-river



Simpatía by Rodrigo Blanco Calderón, translated by Noel Hernández González and Daniel Hahn: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/simpatia



Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/kairos



The Details by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-details



White Nights by Urszula Honek, translated by Kate Webster: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/white-nights



Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/mater-2-10



A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare, translated by John Hodgson: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/a-dictator-calls



The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov, translated by Boris Dralyuk: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-silver-bone



What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma, translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/what-id-rather-not-think-about



Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo, translated by Leah Janeczko: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/lost-on-me



The House on Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone, translated by Oonagh Stransky: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-house-on-via-gemito



Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior, translated by Johnny Lorenz: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/crooked-plow



Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener, translated by Julia Sanches: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/undiscovered




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

Announcing the International Booker Prize 2024 longlist

It’s the third and final installment in our mini-series where we revisit Booker Prize novels whose cinematic adaptations were nominated at the Academy Awards. In this episode, we’re taking a closer look at The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, which won the 1989 Booker Prize. Ishiguro’s moving portrait of the perfect English butler was adapted four years later by James Ivory, in a film which received eight nominations at the Oscars. Tune in to hear Jo and James discuss the novel – which also happens to be our March Monthly Spotlight – and its silver screen counterpart. 

In this episode Jo and James:

Share a brief biography of Kazuo Ishiguro

Summarise the plot of the book, and share their thoughts on it

Explore the character of Stevens and the idea of dignity which he based his life on

Discuss the narrative devices Ishiguro uses throughout the novel

Delve into James Ivory’s adaptation, and the differences between book and film


Reading list:


The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-remains-of-the-day



An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/an-artist-of-the-floating-world



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

Why you should read The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens

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